Summer to Fall

Well, I'll begin with the Fall because I have a weekly question for the Amazing Autumn Coffee Swap.

The topic is:


I took the above photo in Colorado on my recent mini-vacation. It was about 45 outside, the leaves were crunching, and I was so in love with being there. So this week's topic - what makes a "Fall day" for you? How do you know it's here, and what do you love about the weather, the scenery, or something else that makes Autumn lovely?

The "I" above refers to the host of the swap. I have my own fall pictures :o)


These are from a recent trip to the UP of Michigan. I love the beautiful colors and the crisp air -- being able to wear sweaters and scarves without the heavy withercoat and boots. I love the excitement of the upcoming holidays and... sigh. I love everything about fall. It's my absolute favorite season.

And now onto some of the fiber festivals I went to this past summer (well, August and September).

First, was Stitches. It was a fantastic time as the Knitter's Guild here in town had a bus go down so I was with my knitting friends the whole time. Unfortunately they don't allow cameras inside, so I only have pictures of my extensive purchases. Ha.

I got a lot of sock yarn...

Some yarn to make some fingerless gloves


Some 100% Alpaca yarn for a sweater


And a great deal on a bag of yarn


I also got a pattern for a great cabled sweater, but I don't have an individual picture of that.

I also went to Wisconsin Sheep and Wool and unfortunately forgot my camera. I went with a couple members of my knitting group and we had a fantastic time wandering amongst the booths, looking at sheep, and watching the herding dog demonstrations. We even got to see (and pet!) a day old lamb. I think I want sheep now. I have pictures of teh things I brought home though, so wihtout further ado:

Some more sock yarn purchases. (OK, I admit it, I'm a sucker for red, orange or yellow sock yarn. Now I just have to use some of it, hahah!)


I also bought a few types of roving... some suri alpaca in fawn, some white rambouillet, some black and white Finnsheep, and some dyed merino that reminds me of the northern lights in that it's really dark with splashes of magenta and green. I haven't taken any pictures of that because I haven't put any of my fiber stash on Ravelry, haha.

The prize of the day though was some yarn to knit the February Lady Sweater (ravelry link).



I'm so excited!

The final exciting yarn related thing from the past few months was that I got a spot in the Wollmeise Sock Club! I found out about her when I was living in Germany -- when she was still taking custom orders via email and was barely known here in the US. I love her colorways and so when I heard about the Club, I decided to throw my name into the lottery, not expecting to get a spot. But I did! Since everyone has received their packages (we got them in the middle of September), I won't put up the "spoiler" warning.

The contents:




The knitting needles are size 2.5mm dpns (what I use!) made from the wood leftover after manufacturing cellos! The pattern has twisted stitches and cables to make a beautiful bavarian design. The yarn colorways are of course amaazing... and even better in person. The package was well worth the cost of the club. Now I can't wait for December though!

Well, after that onslaught of pictures I think this posting is done. I'll post again soon though with pictures of the pair of socks I finally finished last weekend!

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.

Big Feet and more

Well, I got a lot accomplished on the C-socks in the last few days. It went so quickly that I amazingly didn't have second-sock syndrome!

C-socks with the Snicket socks for size comparison

I would be a lot further... but I decided that I shouldn't neglect Tubey so I finished the ball of yarn I was knitting off of.

I've knit about 9.5" of the body so far. I want it to be a fairly long sweater, so am expecting it to end up at 19-20" (I'm short..).

As for the Snicket socks... they're still where I left them. So far the majority of the poll is saying to redo the heel and finish the sock. I'll probably end up doing that, I just really don't feel like it at the moment. Which is really too bad because I really enjoyed the pattern.

I'll leave you with a little teaser. I knit up a swatch out of the sample skein of Wollmeise I received with my package of sock yarn. I have an interesting idea that involves buying more of her sample skeins....

It Came, It Came, IT CAME!!!!

I was just about to get out of bed this morning when my doorbell rang. I opened the door and was given this:

(OK, so it wasn't open when it was given to me. I was just so excited that I broke into it before realizing this is really something I should blog about.)

It was my Wollmeise package! It came quickly since they just shipped it on Friday. I had seen it on several blogs (Elemmaciltur and Bockstark Knits and pictures from the Summer of Socks Flickr group)and decided that since I was in the same country as them, I just had to have some! (plus my trip to London fell through, so I had some extra cash lying around and never having bought hand dyed yarn I thought it was my chance!)

So I ordered 4 skeins of their superwash sock yarn:

Campari-Orange: Beautiful purpley reds and yellow and orange.

Birkenrinde (Birch bark): Black, grey, and an off-white

Sonne (sun): Bright orange and yellow (it's a lot oranger than on the website and I'm not sure if I like that or not. This may end up in a secret pal gift or yarn swap or something)

Gewitterhimmel (Stormy sky): All sorts of shades of GORGEOUS blues.. teal, navy, azure?

And she even included a sample skein of the thicker yarn in the Zenzi colorway (Zenzi is apparently a common name for a milk cow here in Bavaria and it is grey and brown and cream)

So that was my excitement for the day! I haven't decided what to knit with it yet (most likely socks, but I have no clue as to patterns.. there are many I am looking at). Maybe one will be the first yarn I knit with for SOS '07!