TAH-DAH!

My first pair of socks is done! It took about 2 hours to do the pair, but I'm sure it'll get faster with time. I haven't tried them on yet as they're still a bit damp, but I think they might be a little too big. These were done using Angora Valley's Foxglove yarn (Cotton/Wool/Nylon 50/25/25). There's enough on the cone to make another pair (or more) and perhaps a pair of mittens if I can figure out how to do it on the CSM.

While I haven't been blogging, I have been busy crafting. An impromptu Niagara Falls visit was very productive in the knitting department. I had one of the hexagons for the sweater done, and I got the second one done on the trip. I've put the hexagons together and am working on the finishing. I might have to rip out what's done of the border, though. I decided not to use smaller needles for the ribbing around the edges, but still followed the pattern that has you do a 33% increase. That might be too much. But it's very close! This is very interesting how it goes together, but I don't care for all the loose ends that need to be woven in. Here's my progress:

Pants are done

The pants turned out just unbelievably cute. They look a little stubby in the picture, but they're not really. That diaper needs a lot of space.


I'm going to start the sweater to go with it tonight, though I'll have to use stripes as I don't have enough of the green yarn (actually, the color is "Rue") to do a complete sweater. That's okay, it will coordinate just fine. I have a bad habit of finding yarns I like and just picking up one or two skeins of it. It's too much for a small project, but not enough for an entire outfit. One of these days I'll learn, but the cost of yarn makes it hard to justify buying a lot of yarn for a project you don't have in mind yet.

New Favorite Pattern

The book I bought in Wisconsin, "Babies & Toddlers - a Knitter's dozen" was worth the price of the book for this one pattern alone. It's the one that has the pants made out of an octagon. I got the pants assembled tonight (still some finishing work to do). They just go together so ingeniously... I'll have to order more yarn to finish the sweater (or work out some type of multicolor pattern in order to conserve my green/blue yarn), but I'm looking forward to starting it soon! The picture is a little dark, but if I used flash it was just too bright. Perhaps I should have waited until daylight to take the picture.

Exerimental pants

Meanwhile, here's the progress on the octagon pants I started in Wisconsin. I just have a few rows of the octagon pattern left before moving on to the waist, cuffs, and side seams. I'll close up the hole in the middle as well.

Heels

My first attempt at a heel, not too bad! I've read horror stories from others about them. Now to make an entire sock...

IT'S HERE!!!

My sock machine showed up today, and it was in much better condition than I could have ever hoped for! Within 30 minutes of tinkering with it, I had it knitting. I got it all started up and have been knitting away, playing with the yarn and tension to see how it works. It's so very cool! You'll see lots of holes and inconsistent sizing, but that's just from me playing around...

I'm impatient!

I finally won a Crank Sock Machine at a price I didn't cringe at on eBay. It was shipped last Monday and I'm still eagerly awaiting its arrival. I wish it would hurry! It's coming from Quebec, so it might take awhile...

Fresh air will do you good

I always come home from a trip to Grandma's house with lots of inspiration and a renewed creative bent, and this time was no exception. I always take a knitting or craft project because I actually have time to sit and knit/craft there. I took some yarn with the intent of making a smal Aran-type cable knit sweater. In the meantime, I took a trip to grandma's local yarn store, which is quite a bit nicer than anything I have near me. I picked up two more skeins of my favorite Cotton Fleece yarn (by Brown Sheep). I also picked up a new book of baby sweaters, and found lots of new ideas! I had been using the same 2 patterns over and over. While they're great patterns, it gets a little boring after awhile. I've set aside the Aran pattern and have started one from the new book I got.

The new pattern that I just started appeals to the math teacher in me. The sweater is made of two hexagons sewn strategically in a few places. There's also a set of pants that are an octagon also sewn very smartly. I don't entirely understand yet, but it looks cool so I hope that it all comes together in the end. In the meantime, I'm finding that I need to get longer needles! There are a lot of stitches in these hexagons and octagons. You can kinda see the ridges separating the 8 panels in the picture. One edge will be the front waist, the opposite edge will be the back waist. From there, well, I'll figure it out when I get there.

Before leaving for Wisconsin, I raided my "current project" pin and found that I had been more prodcutive recently than I thought...I found 3 finished sweaters that only needed some final finishing. The yellow sweater is from my favorite pattern by Elizabeth Zimmerman. In talking to the lady at the yarn store, she offered me $0.10/yard in merchandise to knit up a pattern of this sweater and send it to them. It turns out that it would only be about $30 for a few days work (and that doesn't take the cost of the yarn into account to begin with). So I'd earn about $14 for 8-10 hours of work. But I just keep cranking these things out, so perhaps I'll take her up on it. I could use some new needles!

The pink sweater is made from the "Wonderful Wallaby" pattern. I kept telling my mom how nicely and easily it knits up, so I talked her into buying a pattern and some yarn. By the time we got back to Cleveland, she already had most of the body of the sweater done. She hadn't knit in years, so it was fun to see how much she was enjoying knitting and how easily it was all coming together for her. (note - I couldn't get the picture of the pink sweater to upload for some reason....)

The brown sweater (which I may have posted before) is based on the same pattern as the yellow sweater. I just switched the texture for a color pattern. It worked out nicely. (note - brown one not uploading either. I'll try again later...)