Re-Visiting My Childhood With New Socks

When I was a small child we used to get hand me down clothes from our cousins out west.  I remember one particular time the hand me downs included some crazy hot pink and bright purple socks.  Oh how I adored those socks.  Pink and purple!!!!! What's not too love?

I'm pretty sure my older sister did not love them.  I'm pretty sure they were a bit of a horror to her imppecable eye for fashion and aesthetics.  I'm pretty sure she likely still questions both my fashion sense and my ability to distinguish colours because my very favourite outfit at the time was my red Royal Stewart kilt paired with either my pink or purple socks.  Of course she may have been on to something because my very favourite outfit in high school was a rather questionable combination of a shaker knit sweater, a fully gathered skirt with cabbage roses on it, grey wool socks and desert boots.

Not really sure what I was thinking on either occasion.  But whatever.  All that is in the past.  I like to think that I look somewhat more put together when I leave the house these days.  All that being said, I am pretty sure I actually squealed in delight a few months ago when I received a little surprise in the post from my friend, Sally and Plymouth Yarn's Neon Now in super bright pink and purple greeted me when I opened the envelope.  Squee!  It's like the best of my little kid socks all rolled into one fabulous ball of yarn!!!

I wanted a pattern that would be simple, yet not mind-numbingly boring to knit and would highlight the fun colours of the yarn rather than obscure them with fussy patterning.  What I chose was Anne Campbell's Show Off Stranded Socks.  My socks took me a month to knit only because I was busy with a test pair of socks that I'll show you when the pattern is released.  They're actually a really quick knit great for working on when you don't want to have to pay too much attention to what you're doing.  It's a four row pattern repeat that has two of the rows as stockinette.  Easy peasy!  The gusset method was yet another new technique for me, but nothing daunting about it.

I was ever so proud of my matching skills for my socks.  See how well everything lines up?  But while I was busily patting myself on the back I decided during the knitting of sock number two that I should really rip back sock one and do it a few rows longer because it really was on the verge of being annoyingly small on me.  No problem though.  Not with my matching prowess.  Except, well, something went amiss and now the tippity top of my toe (try saying that five times over quickly!) does NOT match.   Agggghhhhhh.  But, well, frankly I really don't care that it's off.  Well, actually I do, but not enough to rip out and try to rematch.  I could see that going absolutely no where fast.

So.  There you go!  Bright, fun, pink and purple socks that I can re-visit my childhood with.  It's not feeling like wooly sock weather right this moment with the sunshine and warm temperature, but come next winter, these are going to be a whole lot of fun on a dreary cold day!

Super Secret Sock Swap

What seems like ages ago a few of the moms in my "Octo-Mama's" group (we all met when we were expecting our October 2010 babies) on Rav decided we should do a sock swap.  We also decided to wait until the new year because we were all busy with holiday crafting madness and prep.  We got our swap partners assigned on Valentine's day and the socks were due to be mailed by April 14th.

My assignment wasn't really super secret given I was knitting for my friend Kim, who was actually hosting the swap, but I still kept all the details of the socks and the extra goodies secret.  I had such a hard time narrowing down what pattern to choose and what yarn to use.  Sometimes I am all but paralyzed by indecision.  It took me until the beginning of March to narrow it down and then only took me 13 days to knit my socks.  Unfortunately it took me forever and a day to decide on the extra goodies too.  (Indecision strikes again!) But I did finally decide, got to work and had them ready to go.  But then there was the mailing of them.  I'm not sure what it is that becomes so difficult about actually taking something to the post office and mailing it.  Possibly it's the fact that so often Canada Post is the bane of my existence with it's exorbitant rates and all the frustration that goes along with it.  I will never comprehend how it is that I can mail something out of country for less $$ than I can to mail it two provinces away.  HOW?!?!?!  It makes no blooming sense.  Anyways.  End of rant.

I finally willed myself to go to the post office on the 13th and amazingly enough (seriously - it's got to be some sort of postal miracle) my parcel arrived in Kim's mail box two short days later! I've had letters going down the block take longer to arrive!

So!  I know you're all dying to know what I settled on making.  I chose The Sky is the Limit by DXM patterns.  It's got a really interesting way of accommodating the gusset - the gusset (can it still be called that?!?) is achieved by increasing stitches along the top of the ankle and foot.  It also sports a short row heel that I'm really starting to get in the groove of knitting after making... oops! I almost spilled the beans about another super secret knitting project. Ahem... move along, nothing to see here.

Anyways - I loved the construction of The Sky is the Limit.  It was also easily customizable to Kim's size since the balance of the foot is just stockinette - the patterning being all in the leg and top of the foot near the heel, which was a bonus.  I used the unfortunately now discontinued Schaefer Anne yarn, that is a wonderful blend of merino/mohair/nylon and came in a huge 560 yd. skein.  It's the first time I have tried it and now wish I'd got more when it was still available.

For the crafted extra goodies I made a reversible sock WIP bag using the tutorial from Very Shannon (the reverse side is the rather quirky Knitmare on Elmstreet fabric by Michael Miller that I surprisingly had found last summer at my local Fabricland in the city).  I also made a notepad holder using the LBG Studio tutorial that I've used before and a set of stitch markers.

I was thoroughly spoiled by my partner, Christine (another fellow Canadian Octo-mama).  She knit me a gorgeous pair of socks that the pictures just can not do justice for.  The yarn she used is String Theory's Caper Sock which is a glorious merino/cashmere/nylon blend.  Is it wrong to want to pet my socks?  They're so soft and squishy.  She also included tea and chocolate in my goodies (as well as a lavender sachet to hang in my closet).  Christine knows me well.  Aren't these socks gorgeous?

The swaps in our group always run like a well oiled machine and are great - I've never regretted signing up for one (and there's been lots of them over the five or so years we've "known" each other.) I think there's only been one that I haven't participated in and that was because I had really dodgy internet access at the time.  The sock swap didn't disappoint!  It was lots of fun and thoroughly enjoyable!

Knitting All the Wool

Apparently when I'm cold I want to knit all the wool and all the things.

In the past I've tried to be pretty good about not having a whole lot of different projects on the needles, because I tend to get stuck in a rut of not knowing which to work on and subsequently nothing gets finished as I spin my wheels in indecision.

Yet, the mercury dropped again (It's been up and down like a yo-yo this winter!), I felt cold and suddenly found myself, over the last few weeks, with a sweater, a pair of socks, a shawl and a pair of fingerless gloves on the needles all at once.  How on earth did that happen??? I also signed up for a sock swap in my "Octo-mamas" group on Ravelry, so need to get another pair of socks on the needles pronto.  YIKES!

After a moment of panic and aforementioned indecision I worked out a system.  The sweater - Laura Aylor's the beach in winter - is for a knit along, but the finish date isn't until March 20th, so I've got lots of time for that.  It has become my weekend knitting.  I work on it from Friday evening to Sunday evening, then I stash it away again until the following weekend.  I'm almost finished the body of it, so I'm on track.  I think...

Trying to decide how much longer to knit before
I start the short rows for the curved bottom...

The rest becomes my weekday evening knitting.  I had put the socks aside for a while because they are destined as a gift - not needed until Christmas.  Sssshhhhhhh.  Don't tell!  They're colour work and they're a gorgeous pattern.  It's going to be hard not to spill the beans early on these ones!  I've finished one sock and am three quarters of the way through the second one.  (And feeling a little smug to be ahead of my gift knitting schedule!)

Once I put the socks aside, I worked on the shawl, Laura Aylor's Sunstruck,  pretty much exclusively until it was done except the border.  I'm procrastinating on that now though because the thought of picking up all those border stitches fills me with more than a bit of dread.  But I love the shawl, so I really need to be brave and attack those picked up stitches once and for all but oh how those 375 stitches for the top border are daunting!! (I'm actually wrapped up in my shawl right now - no border, ends haven't been woven in, but it's big and squishy and cozy and I was chilly after being outside with the dog)

Cozy, cozy wool!

The fingerless gloves were a quick interlude to the other projects.  What a fun pattern.  Treads is a great pattern, that I modified very slightly to eliminate the tipless fingers - I wanted just ordinary fingerless gloves so cast off immediately after the last lateral braid instead of continuing on.  I felt the linen ridge stitch and lateral braid stitches really made the pattern more masculine which is what I was after for this pair of  charcoal grey "Manly Mitts".

Manly mitts.  See how well they go with the tools? ;)

I should actually focus on the gift socks so I can get started on the sock swap socks! I need those 2.5mm needles freed up in order to cast on.  So I guess what I know my focus will be this week!!!

I'm going to ignore the fact that there is also a 3/4 done linen Plum Blossom Tee that is sitting languishing in my closet.  But to be fair,  when the temperatures are in the -30C something with the windchill it's awfully hard to motivate oneself to knit something linen and summery.  It's all about wool.  Warm, cozy wool!!!

I think I'm going to go put on a sweater right now, though, and head down to the sewing room in the basement.  I'm putting the finishing touches on a skirt for G right now.  I hope you'll drop by again in a few days when  I'll be reviewing the wildly "Pinterest popular" Jade skirt from Lisa of Paprika patterns.  If you hurry, and stop by her site, both Jade and her immensely popular Jasper sweater (if you've been on Pinterest any time in the last year you've definitely seen this sweater and probably pinned it and now the pattern is available) are both on sale, 15% off, until February 24th! Go now, you don't want to miss out and I'll see you back here in a couple of days!

Preparation - Or That's My Story

I'm preparing for next winter. I've just cast off another pair of socks this week because all my hand knit socks seem to be wearing out at the same time.  Holes and thin spots abound lately.

Of course I am fully capable of darning my socks.  Although I hate doing it and have seriously considered taking all my holey socks to Mom and begging or bribing her to darn them for me. However, I'm sure she has her own knitting she'd rather be doing than fixing my tattered knitting and of course there's also that whole "teach a man to fish" theory. So I've sucked it up, followed some tutorials and YouTube videos and been doing it myself.

But I digress. I'm forgetting I just told you I have to knit new socks because I'm at risk of having cold toes if I don't prepare for winter ahead of time. I guess the fact that I can fix my socks sort of the negates the whole need thing doesn't it? Hmmmm.

Well then. Preparation. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! It's all about being prepared. It's nothing to do with the fact I'm completely and totally addicted to doing colour work knitting. Nope. Nothing at all...

I have to tell you about the latest pair, Water For The Elephants, by designer Rose Hiver, who found inspiration for her socks in the novel Water for the Elephants by Sara Gruen (which I read and thoroughly enjoyed!). This is my second pair of socks from Rose Hiver. My first pair were my Butterflies are Free that I knit earlier in the year. Rose's patterns are wonderful to work from. So clearly written and beautiful designs. She makes colour work seem easy!

I do a few modifications for fit for myself - using a 2.5 mm needle and 64 stitches for a cuff then increasing to the 72 stitches the pattern calls for and switching to 2.75 mm needles for the colour work. I then switch back down to a 2.5 mm for the heels and then back up to the 2.75 mm again for the foot until the end of the colour work. Once I'm back to a single colour on the toes I decrease down to 64 stitches again and use the 2.5 mm working until the decreases until I have 16 stitches left at which point I graft them and call it a day.

Its been a trial and error method of finding the right fit. When I knit my Butterflies are Free I did a gauge swatch, which I think safe to say I've never done for socks before. I was really happy I had as my socks would have never fit if I hadn't known to go up a needle size for the colour work. I quickly realized the toe was too wide and long as written so ripped back and changed on my first sock I had knit. It was worth it to go the extra mile and have a pair that fit perfectly!  I have been using the same yarn, Sisu, that Ram Wools Co-op in the city sells, for my colour work so that took all the guess work out of the second pair!

Unblocked and fresh off the needles!

Back to my Water For the Elephants. I wasn't sure I was sold on my colour choice. In fact a few times I did consider ripping them out and abandoning them until I could get a colour combo I liked better, but the colour has definitely grown on me and now that they are finished all misgivings have been forgotten. I absolutely LOVE these socks.

My "pretties"

I enjoyed knitting them (and Butterflies are Free) so much I am contemplating casting on Fireweeds, yet another gorgeous design from Rose, as we speak. You know, for winter preparation reasons of course...

Follow the Leader Socks

Follow the Leader Socks!!!

Remember a while back I told you about my socks - the ones that I wrote the pattern for?  Well, it's now a fabulous PDF so I can share it with you!  I'm kind of silly excited about this!  So with out further ado, go ahead and click here and get your very own copy of Follow the Leader Socks!

The idea for these socks popped into my head one day as I watched LTM and Baby Boy playing at the playground at a park in a nearby town. LTM ran, zigzagging from play structure to play structure. First the toddler structure then over to the big slide, next the monkey bars then the swings, all the while with Baby Boy in hot pursuit.

When we came home I checked out the stitch library on knitting on the net for a stitch pattern that might fit the "follow the leader" type tour of the playground the boys had done. Stitch found I started typing things out on my iPad. Then I found some fun, playful yarn and cast on. Having no clue as to how to take those notes and turn them into a PDF I asked my Summer Mamas on Rav for help. My friend Jen quickly offered advice and help and then turned it into a PDF! Thanks Jeniffer!!!

I hope you enjoy the pattern. It's simple, easy and somewhat mindless - great for knitting through continual distractions... Ahem... Like toddlers! You can put it down and pick it back up again and easily know where you left off!

Happy knitting!!!

Busy Times

The last few weeks have gone by in a blur of running into the city for doctor appointments and errands, racing against the clock to get a little garden in that we'd hoped to do earlier but had no time for, and N's high school graduation!

I can't believe he's done school! Not sure actually how it happened so fast, but it did. What seems such a short time ago he was terrified of going to kindergarten and would make a run in the opposite direction the minute I got him out of the car at the school. Or if he got to the doors without incident the teacher would have to pry his little hands off of the death grip he had on me. His homemade Telletubby Poe hid in his little red backpack every day for the first few months (you know, because Poe might have been lonely if he'd stayed home by himself).

Growing up. It happens so fast!

In amongst all the running about and excitement I did manage to get some serious craftiness in! In knitting news, I finished a pair of socks. They're just a quick, simple pair of ankle socks, using some yarn I've had in my stash for several years now. The thing I like the best about them, however, is the fact that they are my very own, very first ever pattern. I'm working on getting the pattern ready with the help of a good friend, but in the meantime I'd like to show them off to you!

My "Follow The Leader" socks!

I also got a few gifts completely finished! The Confection Shrug for a friend's baby girl due soon and the Victorian Lace Shrug for a "birthday swap" I'm in right now. I made an Itty Bitty Baby Dress and a pair of matching bloomers to go with the Confection Shrug. For The larger shrug I made a simple pillowcase dress using the tutorial on Prudent Baby's site.

I've been sewing like a crazy lady too lately! A couple necessities for the boys...

Some new pajamas!

Some new shorts!

A couple new swim diapers (the first using the Aquarius Swim Diaper pattern and the second, which I like much better, my own design) and pocket diapers for Baby Boy!

And a surprise "4th of July" diaper for a friend's little fellow! (the little guy's three year old brother has dubbed it the "Captain America" diaper)!

I had some fun making a felt "lunch" and a cotton lined lunch bag to put it in for my little birthday swapee that I made the shrug and pillowcase dress for.

I also did some sewing for me!! Suddenly it occurred to me I had nothing to wear to N's grad dinner. I really hate shopping for clothes for me and I had a good length of a beautiful linen print a friend had sent in a swap last winter sitting in my stash. Using A Simplicity pattern I already had I made a new dress. I love it! It felt sophisticated enough for a banquet, but comfortable enough that I wasn't feeling awkward sitting through an eternity of long winded speeches and not great food.

My dress!

Feeling bold from my dress success I whipped out another pattern from my stash and set to work on a sun dress. Let's just say pride does go before a fall. The bodice was bikini worthy skimpy on top, suck in your gut fitted through the midriff and absolute-bloomin'-lutely perfect through the skirt. It's now a skirt. Full stop. I hate wasting fabric, not to mention the time wasted putting the whole thing together, but the dress would have hidden in the back corner of my closet, whereas the skirt was worn to N's convocation last night!

So, as you can see there's been lots going on here chez Prairie Girl! Busy times indeed! Next event up is Little Toddler Man's 3rd and my 41st birthday in a week's time. I love sharing a birthday with my little man! He's an amazing birthday present in himself and I'm guaranteed cake. What else could anyone ask for?