Hugs & Chocolate Kisses Socks

The Loopy Ewe's July Sock Club shipment included Dream in Color Smooshy in Spicy Smoochies. Isn't it a great color? The first picture is the most color accurate. The others are a bit washed out.



Here are my completed socks. The pattern makes the Xs and Os for kisses and hugs. Pretty clever.




It has a twisted 3x2 rib. It was a little fiddly but I like the result. I'm not sure it was worth the extra effort though so I probably won't do it again.



My favorite heel is a slip stitch heel flap. It is magic to watch the colors come out. I normally continue the pattern under the heel.



I'm still working on my Slow Bee Mystery Shawl & Goddess Knits Anniversary Shawls. They are increasing slowly and are hard to photograph so no progress pictures. The Slow Bee shawl takes nearly an hour for each right side row! I can only work on them when no one else is around so I don't get much of a chance to work on it. My goal is to complete 2 rows a day. I've got 60 more rows until the border so I'l be working on it for a while.

TTYL

A Lazy Saturday

This is my cat, Trouble. Her name really describes her behavior & attitude. Today, all she could do was lay around. My entire family had a lazy day. I knit while the kids watched videos & played guitar hero.



I worked on my 2 lace projects, Slow Bee Mystery Shawl and the Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl. Here is a photo of my lace knitting set-up. Some people paint by numbers, I knit by colors. I have a set of highlighters that I always use to color code my stitches. For example, I learned to keep my left-leaning decreases & my right ones apart by using lime highlighter for left and red for right. Now, I never confuse which is which. I've written in pencil the number of plain knit stitches go in between other stitches. I keep the chart on my kids' music stand so I don't have to sit at a table. You can see my pattern tamer. It's a magnet that helps me keep my place. I put it above the line I'm working on so I can read my knitting & catch my mistakes as I go.

I'll show you how I keep track of my sock charts in my next post.

TTYL

Froggin' But It's All Good

Normally frogging & knitting aren't two words that you want to hear in the same sentence. Woolgirl Sock Club's June shipment played with the knitting term frog - it was tree frog themed. I liked the theme & the extras but wasn't too thrilled about the yarn. It was too colorful & I couldn't imagine what it would look like knitted up. The yarn is by Dashing Dachs in the Froggin colorway. The pattern is also called Froggin.

One of my favorite extras is a gauge ruler by KaratStix. I love how easy it is to measure gauge. Yes, I always make gauge swatches when I am following a pattern.


I cast on Sunday and finished Wednesday. I absolutely love these socks. First, the colors look awesome together. It matches my Ravelry tee that I wear with black pants. Also, the fabric the pattern created is wonderfully stretchy so it fits my foot perfectly. I plan to use this pattern again with very colorful varigated yarn.


I cast-on a new sock yesterday. Here's the progress so far. . .

. . . details later.

TTFN

Finished Objects

Toe-Up Spiral
I was a bad friend & forgot to mention my Toe-Up No Heel Spiral Socks designed by my friend, Jo Febo. These are the perfect sock for growing feet or first time sock knitters.
Yarn: Bellamoden Sport in The Color Purple. I love her dying methods. I plan to acquire more. Visit her shop here or at The Loopy Ewe

Berlin Muster
These are for the Sock Knitters Pentathlon. It is a 5 sock challenge over 10 months. I entered the race not being a very fast knitter. I'm doing better than I thought I would but I'm not even in the top 25.
Pattern: Berlin Muster-several mistakes were found in the English translation but the charts are correct.
Yarn: Seacoast Panda in Glacier

Oversized Tote
I love to felt Noro Kureyon so this is a modified French Market Bag out of Noro. I modified it just in the size. After all increases, I just kept knitting until I ran out of yarn but I saved 1 skein for my handles. I bought 1 or 2 extra skeins.
Pattern: French Market Bag
Yarn: Noro Kureyon

Rattlesnake Creek Socks
This is another pair of Pentathlon Socks. I just finished them yesterday & came in 24th place. Not bad when there are hundreds of knitters. The yarn in Fleece Artist Basic Merino Sock in the Rose colorway. I'm not a pink person but I love the subtle color variations in this yarn. It really brings out the cables.
Pattern:Rattlesnake Creek Socks
Yarn:Fleece Artist Basic Merino Sock

Here's a sneak peak at my current sock . . . .




pretty wild isn't it. I'm liking this more than I thought I would. Hopefully, my next post will have the finished sock details.

Well, TTFN