Hi! Just a quick post since I'm at work (and SM2 has started! should be knitting if I'm not working! haha..). The first pattern is out and it is really cool! It's luckily top down with a heel flap (my forte!) so it's not too challenging construction-wise. It's full of (purposefully) dropped stitches... which gives it an interesting effect. I'll post more when I'm done!
Happy (speed) knitting!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Sock Madness
Well, SM2 starts in a little less than a week. I'm getting excited, but also a little nervous. I have to work the day before and night of the first pattern release (Thursday 3/13). I just hope I can make it up Friday-Sunday when I don't have to work. I guess they've decided to do it a little differently this time around in that the first x number of people to complete in your division move on to the next round instead of pairing knitters up. I have a feeling this is a lot easier for the organizers of the group-- especially with 200+ knitters!
There's been lots of talk about what the patterns may be though. An organizer has already said they will mostly be toe-up (eep!) and there is one with a Japanese Short Row Heel. I have to say at this point my only goal is to make it past Round #1... though that may not even happen! Mostly I'm in it for the camaraderie, new techniques, and new patterns. I've been told it's still fun from the sidelines... which is good because that's where I'm going to be spending a lot of time.
I'm going to have to go through my sock yarn stash Monday and Tuesday and figure out what yarns I'll be using. There's a lot to go through as you can see from the last post (ca. 12 miles of just sock yarn), but I'm looking forward to it. Swatching and winding are in order. These are the requirements-- with yarn used for test knitting as a suggestion:
Yarn
Needles
Gauge
A
About 360 yards of fingering weight yarn - Louet Gems Merino/Claudia’s Handpaint
US Size 1
8.5 st /inch
B
1 Skein fingering weight – Colinette Jitterbug/Opal Handpaint
US Size 1
32 st /4 inches
C
350 yds fingering weight - ? /Socks That Rock Lightweight
US Size 1
8.5 st /inch
D
400 yards of 2 shades of laceweight – Knit Picks Shadow Heathered /Tess Designer Superwash Laceweight
US Size 2
35 st /4 inches and 40 st /4 inches (2 slipped stitch patterns are used)
E
340 yards fingering weight - ? / Socks That Rock
US Size 1.5 (2.5 mm)
8.5 st /in
F
2 skeins fingering weight yarn – Knit Picks Felici/ Dancing Leaf Farm Sock Hop
US Size 1 (2.25 mm)
8 st /inch
G
Odd balls of fingering weight yarn (leftovers) and 225 meters of solid fingering weight
Us Size 1 (2.5 mm)
9 st /inch
* Optional Round
400 yards fingering weight – Cherry Tree Hill Supersock
US size 2
?
There are some exciting teasers on the SM2 website (here, here, here, here, here, and here) so it's getting me pretty excited to try to guess what the socks are going to look like.
OK, that's all for now. I will probably post a picture of the yarns I've chosen for the competition, but may not post much else until the first pair is finished :o).
Happy Knitting Everyone!
P.S. Anyone who reads this in SM2? I'm in the UConn Cast Ons.
There's been lots of talk about what the patterns may be though. An organizer has already said they will mostly be toe-up (eep!) and there is one with a Japanese Short Row Heel. I have to say at this point my only goal is to make it past Round #1... though that may not even happen! Mostly I'm in it for the camaraderie, new techniques, and new patterns. I've been told it's still fun from the sidelines... which is good because that's where I'm going to be spending a lot of time.
I'm going to have to go through my sock yarn stash Monday and Tuesday and figure out what yarns I'll be using. There's a lot to go through as you can see from the last post (ca. 12 miles of just sock yarn), but I'm looking forward to it. Swatching and winding are in order. These are the requirements-- with yarn used for test knitting as a suggestion:
Yarn
Needles
Gauge
A
About 360 yards of fingering weight yarn - Louet Gems Merino/Claudia’s Handpaint
US Size 1
8.5 st /inch
B
1 Skein fingering weight – Colinette Jitterbug/Opal Handpaint
US Size 1
32 st /4 inches
C
350 yds fingering weight - ? /Socks That Rock Lightweight
US Size 1
8.5 st /inch
D
400 yards of 2 shades of laceweight – Knit Picks Shadow Heathered /Tess Designer Superwash Laceweight
US Size 2
35 st /4 inches and 40 st /4 inches (2 slipped stitch patterns are used)
E
340 yards fingering weight - ? / Socks That Rock
US Size 1.5 (2.5 mm)
8.5 st /in
F
2 skeins fingering weight yarn – Knit Picks Felici/ Dancing Leaf Farm Sock Hop
US Size 1 (2.25 mm)
8 st /inch
G
Odd balls of fingering weight yarn (leftovers) and 225 meters of solid fingering weight
Us Size 1 (2.5 mm)
9 st /inch
* Optional Round
400 yards fingering weight – Cherry Tree Hill Supersock
US size 2
?
There are some exciting teasers on the SM2 website (here, here, here, here, here, and here) so it's getting me pretty excited to try to guess what the socks are going to look like.
OK, that's all for now. I will probably post a picture of the yarns I've chosen for the competition, but may not post much else until the first pair is finished :o).
Happy Knitting Everyone!
P.S. Anyone who reads this in SM2? I'm in the UConn Cast Ons.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Hi my name is KnitEurope and I'm a Yarnoholic
So I joined a new group: Stashalong. This post is also posted on their blog, but I figured it would be good to have multiple people holding me responsible.
This is most of my stash (minus the yarn for 2 afghans and what is with several UFOs):
But this is the main reason I joined the group (sorry the pic's so blurry):
That's all sock yarn. Hi my name is KnitEurope and I am a Sock Yarnaholic.
I am a member of Ravelry and have been busy entering my stash into the database. I looked at it one day (after exporting it to Excel... Ravelry is really an amazing thing, if you're not signed up go jump on the waitlist!) and saw that I had a little over 12 miles of yarn. I was quite astounded and searched around trying to find stashbusting groups. At the same time I realized that I didn't have all of my yarn cataloged yet. Doh. At the present time the total is just under 20 miles. This does not include a BUNCH of yarn earmarked for an afghan I'm about 40% done with. Or the 2 skeins of Malabrigo lace weight that I ordered (hey, I needed to get above the free shipping point, and it was my birthday :o)) last week.
Anyways, on to the goals:
Goals through Mid-Year (end of June)
- Knit a pattern from my knitting books/magazines (1+ pattern per month)
- Knit 2 miles worth of sock yarn
Goals for March
- Knit 3 large squares worth on my Rambling Rows afghan
- Finish the pair of socks for my future MIL
- Finish the pig for my sister
- Complete the first pair of socks for Sock Madness 2 (pattern which comes out 3/13)
grams yarn in stash: 10580.75
yards yarn in stash: 34568.9 (that's 19.6 miles!!)
So yeah. No more yarn buying!
This is most of my stash (minus the yarn for 2 afghans and what is with several UFOs):
But this is the main reason I joined the group (sorry the pic's so blurry):
That's all sock yarn. Hi my name is KnitEurope and I am a Sock Yarnaholic.
I am a member of Ravelry and have been busy entering my stash into the database. I looked at it one day (after exporting it to Excel... Ravelry is really an amazing thing, if you're not signed up go jump on the waitlist!) and saw that I had a little over 12 miles of yarn. I was quite astounded and searched around trying to find stashbusting groups. At the same time I realized that I didn't have all of my yarn cataloged yet. Doh. At the present time the total is just under 20 miles. This does not include a BUNCH of yarn earmarked for an afghan I'm about 40% done with. Or the 2 skeins of Malabrigo lace weight that I ordered (hey, I needed to get above the free shipping point, and it was my birthday :o)) last week.
Anyways, on to the goals:
Goals through Mid-Year (end of June)
- Knit a pattern from my knitting books/magazines (1+ pattern per month)
- Knit 2 miles worth of sock yarn
Goals for March
- Knit 3 large squares worth on my Rambling Rows afghan
- Finish the pair of socks for my future MIL
- Finish the pig for my sister
- Complete the first pair of socks for Sock Madness 2 (pattern which comes out 3/13)
- Exceptions
- - I can buy knitting books/magazines/notions/needles
- - I can buy yarn for a specific project (not socks!) IF:
- - I still end up with a negative outcome for the month
- - It's on sale
- - The goals for the month are already met
- - I will give an exception to sock yarn IF:
- - It is yarn for a pattern in SM2 and nothing from my stash works (ie I know there is a pattern in laceweight which I do not have appropriate yarn for. If I'm still in for that round, I am allowed to buy yarn).
- - OR it is on sale and a yarn I have never bought before.
- - I still must end up negative for the month
- - I knit an extra pair of socks that month.
grams yarn in stash: 10580.75
yards yarn in stash: 34568.9 (that's 19.6 miles!!)
So yeah. No more yarn buying!
Friday, February 29, 2008
One Year (+ a couple days) Older
Well I started this post a couple days ago (Sunday to be specific) when it actually was my birthday (golden* birthday... ha!). But then work turned into hell and I got the flu. What a great birthday (to be fair, C was really nice and took me out to dinner -- when I thought I was up to it -- and made me a carrot cake and got me wonderful presents).
I have to admit I'm starting to feel old though. This has been my first real year out on my own. College and even heading back to Germany last year were sort of old hat -- something familiar enough that I felt I understood/could handle the situation. But now I've moved to a new city (though having C here with me has been a big asset, and made it not so intimidating!) and started a real job. One where I only get a certain number of vacation days (and not many!) and can be rather stressful at times. And then there's worrying about health insurance (luckily now well covered through my job, but I had to wrestle with crap "short-term" insurance for a while... ugh!) and car insurance and all other forms of insurance. Of course, this amount of worry and stress is really nothing new. It's just different.
But I've also loved having a place of my own (well.. C and I both, but you get the point)! Feeling like I could set down some roots (actually hanging pictures on walls!) because there is no set point when I know I'm going to be leaving. Actually being able to decorate. Setting up a craft(/guest :o)) room. And having a reliable income that covers more than rent/bills has been nice!
The past year+ has also brought about a lot of change in my knitting/fiber life as well. I knit my first pair of socks in Decemeber of 2006. I now buy yarn other than the acrylic super cheap stuff from non-craft stores. I started spinning (though admittedly haven't done much the past week). I gotaddicted to in to the online knitting community. Podcasts!
So all in all the past year has been great. I'm hoping for the same this year (though it certainly didn't start out that good... ).
Happy knitting.
* For those of you not familiar with the term, golden birthday refers to the birthday on which your age matches the day of the month (ie I just turned 24 on the 24th).
I have to admit I'm starting to feel old though. This has been my first real year out on my own. College and even heading back to Germany last year were sort of old hat -- something familiar enough that I felt I understood/could handle the situation. But now I've moved to a new city (though having C here with me has been a big asset, and made it not so intimidating!) and started a real job. One where I only get a certain number of vacation days (and not many!) and can be rather stressful at times. And then there's worrying about health insurance (luckily now well covered through my job, but I had to wrestle with crap "short-term" insurance for a while... ugh!) and car insurance and all other forms of insurance. Of course, this amount of worry and stress is really nothing new. It's just different.
But I've also loved having a place of my own (well.. C and I both, but you get the point)! Feeling like I could set down some roots (actually hanging pictures on walls!) because there is no set point when I know I'm going to be leaving. Actually being able to decorate. Setting up a craft(/guest :o)) room. And having a reliable income that covers more than rent/bills has been nice!
The past year+ has also brought about a lot of change in my knitting/fiber life as well. I knit my first pair of socks in Decemeber of 2006. I now buy yarn other than the acrylic super cheap stuff from non-craft stores. I started spinning (though admittedly haven't done much the past week). I got
So all in all the past year has been great. I'm hoping for the same this year (though it certainly didn't start out that good... ).
Happy knitting.
* For those of you not familiar with the term, golden birthday refers to the birthday on which your age matches the day of the month (ie I just turned 24 on the 24th).
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Ravelry
I know not all of you are on Ravelry (but if you want a great source of patterns/advice/knitting fun get on the waiting list!)....
but for those of you who are..
It's not completely pathetic that I'm bummed that it isn't working for me right now and I can't organize my yarn. Right? I mean.... it doesn't mean that I'm completely addicted. Right? Because we all know I can stop any time. And that I'm ... not... checking back every 5 ... 1... minute to see if it's working again. Right?
Also, I joined Sock Madness 2. It's a single elimination tournament where one knitter is paired up against another and a sock pattern is released. Whoever finishes first (or is the furthest after 2 weeks) moves on to the next round. This continues until there is only one final knitter remaining. It sounds like a bunch of fun and even if I'm eliminated in the first round (which is likely considering my work schedule and not being the speediest of knitters), I still get the patterns for all of the rounds. Unfortunately sign ups closed Tuesday night, so you can no longer register (I just found out about it Monday morning!). It starts mid-March though, so I'm hoping to get a lot of stuff accomplished before it starts!
Oooh.... Ravelry's working again......
but for those of you who are..
It's not completely pathetic that I'm bummed that it isn't working for me right now and I can't organize my yarn. Right? I mean.... it doesn't mean that I'm completely addicted. Right? Because we all know I can stop any time. And that I'm ... not... checking back every 5 ... 1... minute to see if it's working again. Right?
Also, I joined Sock Madness 2. It's a single elimination tournament where one knitter is paired up against another and a sock pattern is released. Whoever finishes first (or is the furthest after 2 weeks) moves on to the next round. This continues until there is only one final knitter remaining. It sounds like a bunch of fun and even if I'm eliminated in the first round (which is likely considering my work schedule and not being the speediest of knitters), I still get the patterns for all of the rounds. Unfortunately sign ups closed Tuesday night, so you can no longer register (I just found out about it Monday morning!). It starts mid-March though, so I'm hoping to get a lot of stuff accomplished before it starts!
Oooh.... Ravelry's working again......
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