A FO and a Secret Pal!

You guessed it... the C-socks are done!!

Cast-On: 6 June, 2007
Finished: 14 June, 2007
Pattern: My own. Based off of the Triangle Ribs stitch pattern in Harmony Guides Vol. 2, heel flap, gradual standard toe (I don't know what to call it... you decrease 1 round, knit 3 rounds, [decrease 1, knit 2] (x2), [decrease 1, knit 1] (x3), and then decrease to the number of stitches you want and kitchener them)
Yarn: "Funny Strumpf Color" (Coats GmbH) 6-ply in color #7108 (this is a link to it at the store I bought it at... a LYS in Erlangen). It's 75% superwash and 25% nylon. I used a little more than half... don't have a scale for exact measurement... off of 2 150g skeins (ie, I used a little more than 1 skein).
Needles: Inox 3.5 mm dpns
Pattern Notes: For some reason my gauge was a little looser at the start of the second sock or something and I got a 1/2 less repeat in the ankle than on the first one and the same number for the rest of the sock. This meant that the heel flap and toe on one sock began with a mostly knit stitch row in one and a mostly purl row in the other (the one on the left-- his right foot-- above is the second one ending with mostly purl stitches before the toe, while the other one is mostly knit stitches)... something that bothers me slightly. They also slouch a bit at the ankle... but I wasn't about to rip them out, lol.

C's been wearing them when possible even though it's been too warm for them (he was wearing the one while I was working on the second.. lol)... so I know he likes them at least.

In other news, I got my partner for the Facebook Secret Knitting Pals!!!! I'm so excited! I have some very excellent ideas of stuff to send. Unfortunately my pal doesn't like orange, so I'm going to have to find something else to do with my Wollmeise yarn in the Sonne colorway. I'm thinking about taking Elemmaciltur up on the invite to come down to Munich (last Saturday of June-- the 30th?) before I head back.. so maybe I can arrange a swap with someone down there. I know that Bockstark Knits used that colorway in the past.

I've been knitting on Tubey since I finished the socks, but no real noticeable progress. Speaking of which... the new Knitty is out. I really like the Coachella pattern. I already ordered yarn to make Tempting II in a "knit a long" of sorts with my friend Jenny though.

That's all for now. I'm hoping to finish Tubey this weekend though.... I think I'm getting close! I have to get ready for Summe of Socks.

Forgot to say...

After getting the comment from Elemmaciltur asking if the C-socks were from the Wollmeise Gewitterhimmel... I realized I hadn't mentioned what yarn I was using for them! It is in fact NOT Wollmeise *gasp*! It is a 6-ply brandless? (Coats GmbH) yarn I picked up in a LYS a while back just to make socks for him. It says "Funny Strumpf Color" on the label and is color #7108. It is blues and purples and greys versus the Gewitterhimmel's more green colors and is no where near as vibrant, lol.

Also, "Hi" to all those new readers of my blog! It's great fun getting all these comments from people who are near me! It's so sad that we didn't find out about each other sooner... since I will be leaving to head back to the States in about a month.

Anyways, that was just a quick note to clarify things. I will be doing a more thorough update (ie have pictures) later in the week.

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....

A swim in the near future?

Hi again.

Well the Bergkirchweih is over and Erlangen is returning to normal. Here are a few last photos from the festival before I get into the knitting content.

A sign telling you about the ox on the spit (this one is named Max VII) and me with our last meal at the Berg (ox roast, kloss, apfelrotkohl, and of course a giant pretzel)

The Berg the last night and the ferris wheel coming down the next day.

Now on to knitting. I've been working on various projects since my last post. Mostly on the Snicket Socks.

I had some issues with doing the heel as written (including losing a needle full of stitches with yarn overs about 4 times) and had to frog it twice.

This side of the heel turned out nice (correct)

This side of the heel turned out weird. It was the purl side... maybe I was doing the yarn overs wrong.

But that is not the big problem. The big problem came when I tried them on (well, attempted to). They were WAY too small. They had looked kind of skinny all along, but the stretched a lot and I could get it over my foot, so I figured it'd be ok. But it wasn't. Sigh. I must have some bad sock-size juju or something because the Jaywalkers I had started, as seen here, were too small too. I don't know what to do. So I'm turning to you...

For now I'll just let them sit on the needles (but I only have the one set of 2.5 mm metal dpns, so I need to decide soon!).

Because I was so frustrated with the Snickets, I decided I needed to start on another pair of socks. I've had some DK weight yarn sitting around to make some socks for C's giant size 13 wide (that's size 47.5 for those of you in Europe) feet. So I had him look through my stitch dictionary (Harmony Guides Vol. 2), knit a swatch, and cast on.

Yeah, I've already turned the heel... they're going suprisingly quick!

Stitch pattern: Triangle Ribs (page 27 of Harmony Guides Vol. 2)

Eye of Partridge Heel

iPod nano for scale

They seem really big, but they fit on his foot (almost) perfectly so I'm really happy with them.

No real progress has been made on Tubey. I've knit a few rows, but that doesn't make for very exciting pictures.

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!