Booga Bag

At first I had mixed feelings about Noro Kureyon yarn. The colors were very intense. This is colorway 170. Isn't it beautiful?

As I wound the skeins into balls, I was disappointed with how the yarn felt. It was itchy & scratchy. Only 1 of the 3 balls didn't have any breaks in the yarn. One ball had 3 breaks in the 90 yards. Very frustrating. . . .

When I was knitting, I was surprised that the Kureyon is listed as a worsted weight. Parts of the yarn was nearly as thin as sock weight & other parts were super bulky. Those parts reminded me of unspun roving. Did I get a bad batch or is it a "design feature" of this yarn?

The last picture is my finished bag. It is supposed to be a Christmas present but I want to keep it. It took 2 complete heavy duty wash cycles to get it felted. All of that washing made the bag nice & soft. I think it would still be itchy directly against my skin.

Loopy Sock Club - Fall

A couple of weeks ago I received the fall shipment for The Loopy Ewe Sock Club. I love the colors of this sock yarn. It is a custom colorway by Claudia Handpainted in the Loopy Ewe colorway. Sheri always makes her packages fun. You don't know what will be included in the shipment. This time it is cider, an accessory bag, stitch markers and a fun poem. She had to change the loopy kisses to peppermints during the summer. If you haven't ordered from The Loopy Ewe & you like to knit socks or lace, you really should check it out. TLE has the best customer service - period. Search the net. I've never seen anything bad posted about TLE. Many of the products she carries have been recommended by her customers. Plus, I really like the fact that she includes a personalized note in every order. You can earn store credit (every $250 in purchases earn a $25 credit) and on your 6th order you become a Loopy Groupie. If you go to her store from my blog & place an order, I can get earn credit. So, go check her out.

Last weekend I started a Booga bag. I think I was the only knitter who hadn't made one. It has been felted and is blocking. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it tomorrow. It was a fun & quick knit. I can tell why it has been so popular.

I finished the first of my traditional Monkey socks last weekend. It took me a while stop the first round from slipping off the needles. Once I got past the first round, I enjoyed using DPNs. This sock is a Christmas gift. My water bottle agreed to model the one sock.



I didn't have any problems kirchenering the toe. I stitched very loosely. Then I put the sock on my fist & tightened it until it was the correct tension. It is Cherry Tree Hill in Martha's Vineyard. I used size Knit Picks size 1.5 DPNs. Martha's Vineyard was one of the first sock yarns I purchased. I swatched a couple of socks with it but the pattern just made the yarn look muddy. I also tried a plain knit stitch sock & didn't like it. Monkey socks seem to bring out the best in varigated yarns. I don't think it is possible to make an ugly Monkey sock.

My 10th grade English teacher would be upset if she saw all the times I use the word I. Too many sentences start with it as well. Using different words to start my sentences will be my goal for the next post - too tired to worry about it now.

The Crazies

My month of crazyness is almost over. The beginning of a school year is always hard for me. I spend the week before I go back working in my room - most of it is nervous energy. Students are always surprised that teachers have the same worries & fears that they do before school starts. Will my students like me? Are they nice? etc. Of course, 8th grade students won't admit that are nervous too.

We had a week of training before school started. Teachers are the worst students. I'm amazed at the number of teachers that will sit & talk & play around when someone else is presenting. They would never allow that kind of behavior from their students. I tried very hard to be a model student but this last training was really boring. There's nothing worse than sitting through someone telling us what makes good teaching while they are doing the exact opposite! At least we learned what not to do!

I love to plan for the school year. But, I never seem to do the same things twice so it's a lot of work especially since I change things a couple of times. I'm a bit of a perfectionist. For the last 5 years, I've been the math department chairperson. This year I'm the department head for social studies. So, I not only need to plan my school year, I have to plan out stuff for the entire department. I enjoy doing it but this year was more challenging because I found out a couple of days before school started that I'd be chairing social studies. I had to race to become famliar with the texts and supplemental materials. New teachers were wanting help & I felt so unprepared. The first week of school was spent planning my lessons & making sure everyone in my department had the stuff they needed.

By the second week things are starting to settle down. I always spend several hours preparing for Back to School NIght. I am more nervous talking to parents than I am talking to kids. My planning helps me feel better. So, tonight's the night. After 8 tonight, things will settle down for me.

With all of stress starting the beginning of the school year, I've had several yarn & knitting related purchases. I'm dreading what hubby's going to say as the packages & then the credit card statements start to arrive.

Enough of the whining. On to the knitting content.











I received this month's package from the Under Cover Club. What a beautiful shade of blue. Two sets of point protectors were included with this mailing.


More stuff later.

I got to meet Cookie A.!

Last month my husband treated me to a special day with Cookie A. Cookie's class was held at Unwind, a yarn store in Burbank. I enjoyed the class - it was on designing socks. She seemed a little shocked that we all wanted our pictures taken with her & that some of us wanted her to autograph her patterns. She really knows her socks!

Unwind is a comfortable store with a back table to work at or it has several oversized chairs to fall into. They had a variety of types of yarn but a limited supply of sock yarn. Of course, I had to walk away with













Trekking Pro Natura Sock. Sorry about the bad picture. I'll retake them when I have better light.
I was disappointed that they didn't have any Cascade 220 because I wanted to whip up some stuff from Charmed Knits.

Working Hard - Almost No Knitting

Well, I missed yesterday's WIP Wednesday. I've been working 12-16 hour days to get ready for the new school year which starts Monday. I've completely rearranged my classroom. I've also cleaned out my 8 closets, 3 bookcases, & 8 file cabinet drawers. In the process, I threw out over 30 bags of trash. It's nice being able to open a closet without having things fall on my feet! I'm a packrat & that's what can happen when I stay in the same room for 9 years. I should have taken a before & after shot of the closets. I'll post a picture of the classroom once everything is ready.

I've made some progress on my Halloween sock while knitting under the table during teacher trainings. I also had a disaster while working on the 6th repeat of my Monkey sock. I accidentally pulled out one of the DPNs holding stitches instead of grabbing the empty needle. Oh course, I had to do it on one of the yarn-over/decrease rows - not the plain knit rows too! I managed to get the stitches back on the needle but now have 17 stitches instead of 16. So I've got to figure out which side of the decreases came undone. I've only been able to do about 20 rows of Clue 4 on Mystery Stole 3 in the past 2 weeks. I really like knitting lace but I can only work on this pattern when the house is quiet & I can't have interruptions.

Since I didn't post last Friday, here's my DD modelling her Adara Shawl that I blocked last week. I love how it looks but it is a little too narrow for me. It fits my daughter perfectly. She's been wearing it in the house even with the 100 degree weather.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Hello again, I had fallen into what I call my vacation "nesting." I get into a mood which might seem like depression to other people but I'm happy. I don't want to leave the house for any reason & don't answer the phone. In short, I avoid being around other people. I think I do it for my sanity. Things are so crazy during the school year. I'm pulled in 20 different directions at the same time. All I want to do during vacations is just enjoy being with my family and ignore the world around me. I have come out of my hiding hole & and ready to be a member of society again.

On Wednesdays, I will be updating my works in progress. Right now I have 3 different pairs of socks on the needles.

The first pair is a pair knit with Knit One, Crochet Two's Soxx Appeal. Some people have said that this yarn is a substitute for Cascade's Fixation. I like Soxx Appeal better. It is a cotton, nylon, elastic blend. I'm using a plain knit pattern to highlight the varigation. The toes, heels, & ribbing will be solid light olive. I work on this sock at home while watching TV because it is a mindless knit.


I've knit a pair of Monkeys before and really enjoyed the pattern but I knit them toe up using 2 circulars so my pattern was upside down. I've wanted to do another pair using DPNs but have had problems using the smaller needles. I love using wooden needles in the larger sizes but I bend the smaller ones. The metal Knit Picks were so slick, stitches kept falling off before I could get the 1st round joined. This time, I cast-on over 2 2.25 (US size 1) circular needles. I knit the first round onto the 2.50 (US size 1.5) needles then I joined the round. It worked wonderfully and now I am able to knit using the needles. This pair is with Cherry Tree Hill in the Martha Vineyard colorway. It has a lot of royal blue & purples but includes hightlights of a bright green, brown & grey. It is absolutely beautiful. I work on this sock when I am able to focus on the knitting, usually when listening to podcasts.


I cast-on another sock to knit while walking, riding in the car, or during next week's training & meetings. It is another mindless knit that I've named Halloween. It is out of Opal Rainforest in Schmetterling (Butterfly). It has shades of orange, black & white. It is being knit using magic loop (Knit Picks size 1.5, 32 inches long). I cast-on 11 stiches per needles using Judy's Magic Cast-on. Then increased to 36 stitches per needle following Queen Kahuna's method for toe-increases. Once the toe was 2 inches long, I started a 4x2 ribbing on the insole of the sock. I haven't decided with heel I'll use.

Stay tuned for Finished Object Friday.

A Knitting Update

I love having a summer vacation because I can knit and knit and knit 'til my hands are sore. I get to finish projects that have been waiting.

On Sunday I finished my Summertime Skinny Dippin' Socks. The yarn is really delightful. It has a nice sheen and is very squishy & soft when worn. It is All Things Heather in Superwash Merino/Bamboo sock yarn. The colorway is exclusive to the Loopy Sock Club but I plan to buy more of this yarn in other colorways. These are my first completed pair of socks for the Summer of Socks KAL. At first I wasn't very happy with the blue stripe where I made my gusset increases. But, now that the socks are done, I kinda like it so it is a "design feature."

Today I finished my Patriotic Socks in time for July 4th. I originally wanted to wear them for Flag Day but once that date passed I needed to change to a more realistic goal. I didn't worry about matching the stripes. I like that the stripes are different on each sock.






I've also made progress on Adara. Only 4 more repeats to go. I might add a couple more repeats to make it longer. This is the first time I'm knitting with yarn that doesn't have any give when knitting. Adara is a cotton/linen blend. It has taken some getting use to. I've learned to loosen my guage by knitting with this yarn. I don't know what else you could make with it.



I joined the Mystery Stole 3 KAL. The first clue came out last Friday but I just started on it last night. I've completed the first 45 rows. Only 55 more rows to go before this Friday's clue comes out. I'm using Zephyr in Charcoal, a clear bead with a coopery liner, and size 3 needles. The pattern hasn't had a memorizable (new word?) repeat so I can only work on it when I can focus 100% on it. It's been hard finding time having the 3 kids & my hubby around. I guess I'll need to work on it before anyone else gets up. I'm happy with how it is looking so far. The picture didn't come out very well. It is a solid black - there isn't any other color or shading.