NorCalKnitter

Name:
Location: Crescent City, California, United States

I love to make things with my hands. My current passions are knitting and spinning.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

No Idle Hands Here!!

I may not be doing a whole lotta posting, but I have been making some progress on my knitting. I have been diligently working on the "Sock It To Me Baby" sweater for a friend's baby that is due the first part of May. Obviously, from the picture I need to do some blocking!! I only have one more sleeve to knit before I block and start sewing all the pieces together. The pattern said not to expect the front pieces to match the back (stripe-wise), but the stripes should be pretty darn close to matching across the front. I wasted quite a bit of yarn trying to make sure they matched! I'm hoping that I will have enough yarn to knit a matching cap also.
Sunday night I had to take a break from baby knitting to work on my Inside Out Socks from the STR club. I used Size 000 Addi circulars for the foot of the sock, and size 0 DPN's for the toe and the heel. I'm thinking that I will continue with the size 0 for the cuff of the sock. Instead of "pooling" of the colors on the foot, I prefer to call it "puddles". (I know it's kinda corny what with the the name of the color being "Monsoon" - oh well, that's me, corny at times). At this point I will be glad if I get one sock done before I get my next kit, unless I happen to be one of the unlucky few to be the last to receive a kit, again. I don't think that should happen twice in a row. I think the problem with my last kit being late was the fact that they had some kind of problem with the binders that they sent with the kits.

This is the first time that I have done a toe up sock. After doing the wrap and turn for the increases on the toe, it was a little quicker and easier to do the wrap and turns for the heel of the sock. The socks seem to be a pretty good fit so far. Wish me luck on the cuff!

Labels: ,

Monday, April 16, 2007

Just Little Knitting Progress

I sure had a nice weekend. On Saturday I went to a mineral, gem and bead show. I personally was more interested in the bead part of the show, and was a little disappointed that they didn't have more there. They did have lots of different gemstones, and the best find was some stones that were wire wrapped. I treated myself to this beautiful piece that is Ruby in Zoisite. I also bought some Lapis beads to make myself a neckalce. I plan on making it simple, so it should get done in this lifetime.

I have been knitting away on the baby sweater. I fell that I made some pretty good progress, although it is slower than I would like. It is always a little slower when you are working with fingering weight yarn.

And in between work, life and other knitting, I managed to make a little progress on my Inside Out sock. I sure would like to get at least one sock done before the next kit arrives. I guess I need to quit getting side-tracked with other projects. But there are soooo many thngs I want to do. Must get more focused, must get more focused!!!

I'm off to do a little studying for a test I have on Friday, and then knit till bedtime.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Caution, picture heavy post..

Alright, so I haven't had much time to post, but I have been knitting when I get a few minutes.
While I was wainting for my Rockin' Sock Club yarn to arrive, I started these on Trekking XXL Colr #108. I really like the blues in this yarn.

When I did get my RSC yarn, I wasn't able to start the socks right away because of having company and then going out of town. When I finally did have a few minutes, I got a little nervous because I had never done a toe up sock before. So I finally got my courage up last night and cruised the internet for help with the provisional cast on. I tried the method on the Knitting help site, got the toe all done, and couldn't get my stitches to look right on the needle (plus I couldn't find them all and I didn't leave enough of a tail to finish off the end). Soooo, I went back to the pattern and did it the way they tell you to by crocheting a chain and picking up stitches throught the back loop of the chain. and voila'...
I did manage to finish the blue alpaca scarf to go with the fingerless mitts. And while I was at the LYS yesterday I bought this Opal yarn to make a sweater for our youth pastor's new baby that is due at the end of the month and is supposed to be a boy. I may not get this done in time for the shower, but I don't think they will mind if I give it to them after the baby is born. And since it is for a baby, hoepfully it won't take too long to knit!!
I haven't posted too much about the Cardigan for Arwen, but I have been working on that too. It wasn't a good project for the plane, so I had to wait until I got back. The short rows that you do on the sleeve are good practice for the short rows on the RSC socks.


That's all for now. Happy Easter everyone!



Labels: , ,

Sunday, April 01, 2007

What a busy life...

March sure was full of alot of excitement for my family and myself. Let's see - my son had emergency surgery, my mom came to visit for a week, I went to a conference in Las Vegas on fetal monitoring (with Lisa Miller - she is an awesome speaker), came home and sent my oldest off to Wyoming to work and be a man!!! And since today started off kinda quiet, we went looking at cars and got a new-to-us small SUV. We really needed another vehicle to help get kids around, and that got better gas mileage than our diesel truck. The SUV is a 2005 with only 10,000 miles, and the interior looks and smells like new!

OK, can I take a deep breath and let life slow down a little?? Please? I would like just a few days of BORING/QUIET/RELAXING !!! Oh well, I work 12-hour shifts over the next 3 days.

Please check back on Thursday or Friday, hopefully I will have pics of some knitting I did while on the plane. And hopefully I'll get a chance to cast on for my Rockin' Sock Club - Inside Out socks!