lisa’s place

The Woolgirl Sock Club is beyond wonderful. I’d hear rumors that Jen really outdoes herself, but still… Unfortunately, in my rush to start knitting, I didn’t take any pictures of the first package and its contents (I won’t make that mistake again). Take a look at this picture of the package for April here.

The pattern for these socks was really well written and quick and fun to knit up! The socks were done after just a few evenings of knitting.

With just a couple of exceptions, I followed the pattern without making changes.

Pattern:

I did modify the toe quite a bit and I added a single crochet border to the cast-on edge of the top of the sock, For some reason, the tops of the socks just looked awful. I blame the speed at which I cast on for these…

In order to maintain the pattern down the toes of the socks, I made the following modifications to the toes:

For the sole of each sock, decrease as written in the pattern.

For the patterning on the top of the sock (over 28 stitches):

Row 1: p1, k2, p2, ssk, k6, p2, k6, k2tog, p2, k2, p1 (26 st)
Row 2: p1, k2, p2, k7, p2, k7, p2, k2, p1
Row 3: p1, k2, p2, ssk, k5, p2, k5, k2tog, p2, k2, p1 (24 st)
Row 4: p1, k2, p2, k14, p2, k2, p1
Row 5: p1, k2, p2, ssk, k10, k2tog, p2, k2, p1 (22 st)
Row 6: p1, k2, p2, k12, p2, k2, p1
Row 7: p1, k2, p2, ssk, k8, k2tog, p2, k2, p1 (20 st)
Row 8: p1, k2, p2, k10, p2, k2, p1
Row 9: p1, k2, p2, ssk, k6, k2tog, p2, k2, p1 (18 st)
Row 10: p1, k2, p2, k8, p2, k2, p1
Row 11: p1, wrap 2, p2, ssk, k4, k2tog, p2, wrap 2, p1 (16 st)
Row 12: p1, k2, p2, k6, p2, k2, p1
Row 13: p1, k2, p2, ssk, k2, k2tog, p2, k2, p1 (14 st)
Row 14: p1, k2, p2, k4, p2, k2, p1
Row 15: p1, k2, p2, ssk, k2tog, p2, k2, p1 (12 st)
Row 16: p1, k2, p2, k2, p2, k2, p1
Row 17: p1, k2, p2tog, k2, p2tog, k2, p1 (10 st)
Row 18: p1, k2, p1, k2, p1, k2, p1
Row 19: p1, ssk, p1, k2, p1, k2tog, p1 (8 st)
Row 20: knit 8
Row 21: graft toe using kitchener stitch

Just a quick couple of pictures of the first (finished except for dealing with ends) Monkey sock! Oh… these are so fun! Pretty quick, too. They fit the foot really snugly, but don’t feel tight, but they stay up… hmmm…

Back to work…

So… the general crappiness that has engulfed my body lingers… not venturing far from my bathroom… but…

More progress on the knitting/crochet front (and a much cleaner living space).

The Chrysanthemum Tea Shawl starts to take shape (Wednesday night, maybe)…

A little blocking problem here … or… a little size problem with my blocking boards and teeny “dining” table. Either way, the damn thing just won’t fit.

My plan it to not worry too much about blocking it really well. The yarn is pretty floppy and the shawl is very soft and floaty, so I don’t even think that the block would “take.”

I am happy with the finished product at this point:

A big soft and smooshy doily that you can wear, what could be finer?

Finally cast on for those Monkey Socks with some really nice new yarn. This is a quick moving and pretty intuitive pattern to knit. I think it may take a while to memorize it, but it is pretty clear when you make a mistake (at least so far).

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a cool day lacking excessive bathroom visits Yeah, right.

Finally, finally, finally finished the Knit Picks CotLin socks!!!

I used Wendy’s Sportweight Toe-Up Sock with Gusset Heel pattern (one of my favorites - easy, perfect fit, and very simple to modify). I added a few stitches on each side of the instep about 2 cm before the heel began to accommodate this apparently larger-than-normal part of my foot. The top was finished off with a simple 2×2 ribbing (until I almost ran out of yarn on the first sock).

No idea why these took so long to finish. I was looking forward to the results and really liked the feel of the yarn. However, the yarn was pretty hard on the hands. Not a surprise, really, but it was extremely unforgiving (should have known from the cotton/linen blend) and made my wrists feel crappy. I like the finished socks very much and can’t wait to have some non-wool hand knit socks! Unfortunately, it is definitely going to have to cool off a lot more to allow wearing of socks of any type.

After the concert Saturday evening, we stayed in Florence, Kentucky. (Follow the link to see the “real story” of the Florence, Y’all water tower). On Sunday afternoon, we went to the Cincinnati Zoo. Such a pleasant surprise! The insect house was great and they had a bunch of mini aviaries so that you could get up and personal with lots of really cute and cooperative birds! Here are just a few: