Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The Medal is Mine!!!


Sweetness - my own gold medal :)

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Gold Medal?


Olympic knitting finished, with DAYS to spare!!!
Friday Harbor socks finished, 10:25pm PST!
I'm pretty happy with them - the foot size is perfect, although they are a little long in the leg for me and a bit tight at the top. If I make this pattern again I'll go up a couple needle sizes for the top. The yarn is more vibrant than the photo indicates, but that's cell phone cameras for you!
So, my Olympic knitting comes to a close, but I really enjoyed making these socks and will certainly make more (with this nice STR stash from Madrona...

Specs:
Pattern: Friday Harbor socks, from Knitting on the Road
Yarn: Socks that Rock, mediumweight Fire on the Mountain
Needles: Brittany size 2.5
Changed? Massively reworked the toe decreases since I have little feet. Otherwise, smooth sailing and a great pattern.

Now I can get back to my Lady Eleanor - she's been missed :(

Wednesday, February 22, 2006


Finally a photo! After some Photoshop tweaking I've managed to get my cell phone's version of a jpg file to agree with blogger's idea of a jpg file. So, here we are, my first ever sock! Pattern is, for those not reading further down, Friday Harbor, from Knitting on the Road, down in Socks that Rock (colorway Fire on the Mountain)

Progress report, still no photos :(

I'm a bit angry at the moment as I can't get blogger to upload my finished sock photo, despite much wrangling. It will upload other jpg files, from my camera (back when it was working), but for some reason it really doesn't like this photo. So, nothing to show, again. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the second sock and should thus be done with my Olympic project with time to spare. I've determined that I have a hard time knitting during the Olympic coverage, because anything but stockinette requires me to look at the knitting, and thus not at the tv, and so much that happens is fast, so if one is just looking at one's knitting one might miss photo finishes and missed triple flips...but, the sock is progressing nonetheless....

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Sorry for the delay...

Things have been chaotic. And all my technology is malfunctioning, which has prevented me from posting from home, but more importantly from taking any photos of my Olympics knitting (or the great haul from the fiber fest Friday! Hopefully I can get a good photo of the yarn haul later, but I'll just detail it. Perhaps it won't seem so bad in writing?
I bought: 4 skeins of Manos.
4 skeins of Socks that Rock (more on that later)
1 skein of kid mohair
Hedgehog kit (yes, you're reading that correctly)
Now, let me mention that I have enough Manos that it's really its own stash. In fact, I can't even remember all the Manos I have. This time around I bought two skeins of a varigated red, which matches the kid mohair and will be used for a Purl scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. The hedgehog kit, well, it was cute, that's all I can say. It's brown, and speckly, and furry, and will be be about 10 inches tall after being felted. I'm really excited about it, although I have no idea what I'll do with it, and when I'll do it. Rachel was there enabling me to buy more yarn than I would have by myself, although I think she bought more overall, since she bought 5 skeins (6?) of Manos to make a tank top for herself.
Onto the STR. Now, I've been lurking on many knitting blogs for months, and it seemed that STR was the sh*t. So, I bought some. I bought a lot. 4 skeins worth, 3 medium weight and 1 lightweight. I decided to make my Olympic socks with one of the medium weight skeins, colorway Fire on the Mountain. I have to say I really enjoy knitting with this yarn. The color varigations come so frequently that they don't stripe, and it's really addicting to keep seeing the color changes. So addicting that I've finished my first sock!
Although my camera is on the fritz and has decided not to recognize ANY of the cards I have, I took a decent photo with my cell phone, which blogger doesn't want to let me upload. Honestly, technology and I are not getting along. However, I've finally got my internet working at home, after 10 days of complaining while not dealing with the situation.
Anyway, about the sock. Since I was using the STR, and because everyone else in blogland is doing so, I wanted to make some Jaywalkers as my Olympic project. But, after about 2 inches, I decided I really couldn't force the gauge required with the mediumweight yarn I was using, and that the knitting was really not enjoyable, so I ripped that out and hunted down a pattern with a more friendly gauge. I'm making the Friday Harbor socks from
Knitting on the Road, and I'm really liking them. The pattern is easy, and although I think my gauge was slightly smaller than the pattern calls for, it's worked out perfectly because I have small feet...only complaint is that they're a bit long in the leg for me, but that's my own preference and overall I'm very happy with the first sock and the second is already cast on...From looking at other photos of these socks online, it seems like they should be a bit lacier than mine, but as I said, my gauge was a bit smaller than the pattern called for, so maybe that's why my socks aren't holey...

Friday, February 10, 2006

The flame is almost lit

T-minus 10 hours until the flame is lit, my local time (PST). I am making my first pair of socks, in Trekking XXL, color 100 (I think). I plan to make one of the ribbed patterns from Knitting Vintage Socks, though I haven't yet decided which one. Got 10 hours left to make up my mind...I've trained with 2 swatches, and determined that size 2s are a little big and size 1s are a little small, which is typical of what happens when I swatch. I'm going with the 1s, since I have little feet. I'm not really used to such small needles - I've used 2s before, but not for ages. When I finished my swatches and went back to my Lady Eleanor (photos later, blogger is having issues), my fingers were fumbling all over with the size 8s...

Rachel and I are leaving work early (ssh) and heading down to the Madrona Fiber Festival this afternoon. We wanted to see the Yarn Harlot speak tomorrow, but we figure it'll be mobbed and we really just want to pet yarn. I'm excited about the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth, and concerned that I may end up switching sock projects if they have something that gets me really excited.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Testing

Okay, so my knitting blog is finally up and running. I've been meaning to set one up for months, and just been too busy and too lazy, and while neither of those things have really changed, I figured if a blog existed I might actually post on it...we'll see. More later.