I'm Becoming a Smurf

So I think my fingers are now permanently blue. But the good news is that I finished my first of the Sidewinder socks.

The increases and decreases on the heels and toes don't really match (the decreases bump up a lot more than the increases) and that kind of bothers me.

Also the toe join is weird... because the Kitchener is done from the wrong side.

Here is a close up of the increases/decreases on the toe.

OK, umm. I guess that's all I really have to say for now. The first sock went really quickly, so I think I'm going to try to finish the second one the beginning of this coming week. I'm going to save the second of the Simple Trekking socks for the flights home because I'm doing them on my bamboo needles. Hopefully airport security will be ok with that. They should be.

Long Time No See...

Sorry I've been away for a couple days. C left on Thursday to head back to the States and I wanted to spend some time with him since we don't know when exactly we'll get to see each other next.

Lots of knitting has been accomplished in the last few days though, so get ready!

Cast-On: Summer Solstice.. 21 June, 2007
Finished: 2 July, 2007
Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
Yarn: Wollmeise Superwash Sock in Campari Orange, medium
Needles: Inox 2.5 mm dpns
Pattern Notes: The first sock's cast-on was a little tight, so I cast-on over 2 needles for the second one. Otherwise I absolutely love this pattern and will definitely make it again!!

I also finished one of the Simple Trekking socks. It's very comfy, though I think the thin stripes obscure what little pattern there is on them (there are 2 sections where the ribbing switches from k2p2 to p2k2... can you see them??)

And because I was in the mood for something new, I also cast-on for Nona's Sidewinders.

I'm through Act II and they are turning out really cool so far except for a few things:

1) I didn't do the first couple M1R increases correctly in the toe so there are a few small holes

2) I accidentally did the first 22 rows of the leg in garter stitch instead of only 14.

3) The yarn turns my hands blue.

I also joined the Mystery Stole 3.. but I have no yarn for it, and I haven't ever really done a big lace project... so I'm putting it off for now.

So that's all the knitting news there is for now. There will probably be a lot more in the next week since I don't have much else to do, haha.

Munich and Socks

Yesterday C and I headed down to Munich and met up with Elemm and Cashyie from Knitters Uncensored for a yarn crawl and just hanging out. I, being the bad blogger that I am, didn't take ANY pictures while in Munich. Here's a recount of the day though with some pictures. Cashyie brought me an awesome present since today is Canada Day (Happy Canada Day Cashyie!):

Coke, Canadian Whiskey, and a cute little garter stitch scarf!

We then headed to various yarn stores around the city. I won't rat out anyone else's purchases (haha) but I bought a few skeins of Lana Grosse Royal Tweed in varying brown/grey colors for a scarf:

I also bought some yarn for my Facebook secret pal, but I won't post it on here in case she reads my blog. After hitting up the yarn stores Cashyie had to head in to work (grad school sucks, haha) and Elemm, C and I headed to the Victorian Tea House and drank some tea (and coffee) and discussed things like Wollmeise. Because C and I hadn't really been in Munich for much other than Oktoberfest before, Elemm was kind enough to take us to some touristy things like the gardens at Schloss Nymphenburg and the Hofbraeu Haus. The Hofbraeu Haus wasn't so bad tourist wise because we went upstairs in the beer garden. Elemm had pulled out his Jaywalkers and several people came up to talk with him about them. It was fun. Another knitter came and joined us...Celina (thanks Elemm).. and all of us (except C) had a good time knitting for a while. I turned the heel on my second Monkey and started on the gusset:

while Elemm finished his Jaywalkers. Celina was knitting some doll clothes. It was then time to head back and unfortunately I slept through some great knitting time on the train, haha. I did get some knitting done when I got back to my apartment though, and my tv knitting is coming along:

Simple Trekking socks (tv knitting)

So that was my day in Munich. I really want to thank Elemm again for being a great tour guide and putting up with going to touristy places. We had a great time!!

ETA: The scarf from Cashyie has found a new home with the french cat that C got me for Valentine's Day. Now it looks even more European!

Psst...

I won!! Hehe.

Train Knitting

So this has to be a pretty quick post, because it's C's birthday today. But I thought I'd give you a few pictures of the finished Tubey, of the Monkey socks, and from my trip to Freiburg this past weekend. So here you are:

Cast-On: ??? End of April 2007
Finished 20 June, 2007
Pattern: Tubey from Knitty
Yarn: Lana Grosse Numero Uno and Numero Uno Tweed
Needles: 5 mm dpns and a 5 mm circ
Pattern Notes: I did an i-cord bind off for both the sleeves and the bottom. The back is a little too wide on top and it poofs out a lot. Also, the green yarn was slightly thinner than the black and made a little too airy of a fabric on the 5 mm needles. I'm not entirely pleased with it, but the pattern was good. Maybe I'll try again sometime.


Otherwise the Monkeys are progressing OK. I finished the first one while we were in Freiburg and cast on for the second on the train ride home. Trains are excellent places to knit. An old lady came up to me on the train ride there and looked at my sock and said "Schoene Muster" (nice pattern). It was cool. Anyways, here are some pictures of the sock:

With some Bio-beer in Freiburg

Freiburg loves knitted socks!

I cast on for the Simple Trekking socks as an easy tv sock. I'm only about 10 rows in. And the picture really sucks, haha.

Well... to finish the post, here are some pictures from the weekend. I'll post again later when I have more time. It's been kind of crazy around here though since I move in 3 weeks, and am applying for jobs in the States while being over here, etc. Hopefully later this week I'll have time.

Freiburg pothole cover; view of the Freiburger Muenster (church) from Schlossberg

Yes, that "gargoyle's" hole is in his ass; stone crocodile in the canal

Pretzel mosaic; skydiving launch from a mountain near Freiburg

A wood mill built in 1621; pretty wildflowers

Day One

I was so excited to begin knitting today. I brought my yarn to work so I could cast on over lunch (Summer of Socks began at 5 am EST... or 11 am here in Germany). And I proceeded to knit while I was "waiting on an experiment." And then I knit on the bus ride home. And most of the evening (I stopped to go to the grocery store and eat dinner). And all night. And now it's 3 am and I'm this far:

Sorry the picture is crap. I just took it and obviously the lighting at 3 am kind of sucks for picture taking. But anyways, as you can see, I've already turned the heel. People say that the Monkey socks go fast.... and man they weren't kidding! I'm knitting them on 2.5 mm aluminum needles. And it's in the Wollmeise superwash sock yarn in Campari-Orange (soooooo pretty.).

That's all for now I suppose... I should really get to bed. Oh, also wanted to say that C and I are headed over to Freiburg for the weekend, so there won't be any updating between now and Monday. Plenty of knitting will be taking place though... long train rides are good for that!

Happy Knitting!

Summer of Socks Preview... and a little more

Well since the start of Summer of Socks is just around the corner (aka TOMORROW!!!) I thought I would tell you a little about the patterns I'm looking at and the goals I have for the summer.

First of all: Goals. I talk a big talk, but really I haven't done much sock-wise. All of the (3 pairs) socks I've made (successfully) have been top down, heel flap, either stockinette or some knit/purl rib combination, and on 5 dpns. Yes, I've started both the Jaywalkers and Snicket socks-- and had no problem with executing the stitch patterns themselves-- but they were too small and I only reached the gusset of the first sock of each before having to frog. So here are my goals (in no particular order).

1) Do a toe-up sock. There are a couple patterns that I want to do that are written for toe-up... so I hope this will be accomplished easily.
2) Do a lace sock.
3) Do a cabled sock.
(Both 2 and 3 will be accomplished easily based on the patterns I'm looking at)
4) Try something other than dpns-- though this would require purchasing some circs, so we'll see.
5) Short row heel

OK.. now for the patterns that I'd really like to do (also in no particular order).

1) Monkey
2) Jaywalkers
3) Snicket
4) Zokni
5) Brigit
6) Elfine
7) Aran Twist-- from the Sockamaniac Sock-a-long Yahoo! group
8) Cable Twist
9) River Rapids
10) Sidewinders (though I've been having trouble getting gauge)
11) Vinnland
12) Mock Crock
13) Wyvern
14) Leyburn
15) Bayerische
16) Simple Trekking
17) Clessidera
18) Ampersand
19) Rhodie Gus

Right........ so that's more than a pair a week if I want to do them all during SOS. And some of those are really complicated. But those are just a few of the free patterns I've seen online that have caught my attention. I'm really excited about this though and have quite a few long travel days ahead of me in which I can get a lot accomplished. Hopefully.

I also wound my Wollmeise into balls (I recently discovered that the nice "center pull" ball that I made is really tangled, so I decided to just wind the Wollmeise into a ball as to not subject the beautiful, squishy yarn to the same fate) in preparation for Summer of Socks.

On a Tubey note, since 5/6 people said to just finish it in green.. I decided to follow your advice and am working diligently on it. I hope to finish it tonight (not much to do.. maybe another inch, bind off, and weave in the ends).

Since I'm at work right now I'm not going to take the time to add links for all the patterns-- and I have a few pictures of my Wollmeise being all pretty and balled up. I'll add these later today once I get back to my apartment.

ETA: Links and:

My version of a swift-- computer chair with a stool on it

The balled up Wollmeise... oh so pretty

Campari-Orange colorway. I am OMG in LOVE with this color! It's going to be my first pair of socks for the SOS-- monkeys

Birkenrinde

Gewitterhimmel-- the colors didn't show up very well. There is a beautiful subtlety to this colorway.

A little present for myself for the start of SOS. 2 sets of 2.5 mm (US "#1") 80 cm (32") addi turbo circs!!! Yeah, I was in a LYS today and saw that they were pretty much half the price of what I could get them for in the States.... so I bought them.

WIP update and some past FOs

Hi Again.

First an update on my WIPs. The lace scarf isn't progressing very quickly. Other things seem to be grabbing my attention, so no update pictures for that.

Tubey has progressed some. I finished the first sleeve and decided to bind it off with an i-cord binding. I picked up the stitches from my crochet provisional cast on and have begun knitting the second sleeve.

I haven't worked on my Jaywalkers at all. I rewound the ball of multi-colored yarn, but don't think I'll use it for Jaywalkers again. I didn't like the pooling at a larger circumference so I guess I'll save it for another pair of socks.

I did start a new pair of socks though. It's the Snicket Socks from MagKnits September 2006 issue. I see them as a warm up for the bayerische socks I mentioned in my last post. I'm doing them in Lana Grossa Meilenweit Tweed fingering weight yarn. The base color is kind of near rust with green, yellow, and blue specks dispersed throughout. Here are some pictures of what I have so far.

That's about all that's going on in WIP-land. I'm considering not starting any socks for a while because I have joined my first KAL... Summer of Socks 2007. The actual KAL begins on the summer solstice (June 21) so I have a while to wait. There are contests for the greatest number of pairs of socks knit.. and a vacation photo contest. It's a bummer it doesn't begin earlier because I'm going on a trip to Venice in about a week and I could get some great gondola/sock pictures! I'm going to keep working on the Snicket socks, but I think that may be my last pair until the end of June.

I'll leave you with a few pictures of FOs from the past. Nothing too exciting so I won't go into detail on them. If you want more detail on anything specific, leave a comment and I'll write about it in my next post.