Wee Tiny Noro Sock

My friends Kelly and Stacey sent this swap my way -- the Wee Tiny Sock swap.

There's certainly no shortage of leftover sock yarn in my house, and this looked like a fun way to use some of it, and meet new knitters.

Presenting the Wee Tiny Noro Sock:

I love this cute little pattern! I did make a couple of modifications to the toe -- I prefer a more rounded toe and so didn't knit a row between the decreases. ('Cos it's important that the wee tiny sock has a rounded toe instead of a pointier one, right!? I don't know why that mattered to me -- it's not like anyone's going to be wearing it).

Actually the sock went through a couple of evolutions before I made one that I feel happy sending to my swap pal. Now I need to come up with creative ways to use the 'test' versions. Something like this maybe?

The wee tiny sock will go out in the mail tomorrow. If only I had a mini sock blocker to go with it ;o)

A Knitted Peace

Stop 6 on the Colorado Yarn Tour is A Knitted Peace in Littleton.

A Knitted Peace was one of the first yarn stores that I visited when I moved to this area -- it is beautifully outfitted, has a wide variety of yarns, and an extremely talented and friendly staff. I'd definately put it on the 'must visit' list if you are in the area. And if you are looking to learn some new techniques, I can highly recommend their classes.

But ooh the yarn selection... between the Rowan, Habu, Kauni, Mirasol, Noro, Koigu, Elsbeth Lavold etc etc a knitter could happily get lost for hours. And that's exactly what I did today. I arrived early, hung out for the day, and at about 3pm decided that it was about time I left. But only after spending an obscene amount of money on investing in some more yarn. Good thing Joe had taken the in-laws out to the auto show so that I could smuggle my sacks of loot back home without the usual line of questioning: 'Is that MORE yarn?' 'Did you ever finish (insert the name of a WIP here)?' 'Don't you already have some yarn like that in the basement?' ;o)

Amongst the piles of Noro Kochoran and Elizabeth Zimmerman books that I splurged on today, I also picked up another skein for the Colorado Yarn Tour afghan -- this time in a cream and rusty orange colour. I'm thinking that this might be a nice addition to the beiges and duck egg blues. A little pop of contrasting colour.

As the weather warms up here in Colorado, I'm looking forward to dragging some of my knitting buddies to venture further afield and check out some other Colorado yarn stores...

I'm in luck

Just a quick update on the slimline: I found the cashmerino astrakhan yarn in elusive dyelot 32!

There is a store in Oregon that had 1 skein left... and that's all I need to finish up the collar and sew together. Phew!

I think they must have sensed my desperation to get my hands on it because they shipped it out immediately and it arrived in my mailbox yesterday.

Expect to see FO shots soon....

Easter Blessings

So far the day has brought some wonderful news...

My brother phoned to tell me he got engaged to his lovely lady. I'm thrilled and couldn't be happier for them both.

I love how he surprised her: he hid the ring inside her chocolate Easter egg! (It's a big deal to swap chocolate Easter eggs in the UK -- they are chocolate shells, that are filled with sweets and then wrapped in decorative foil.)

He had unwrapped the foil, heated a knife to cut a hole in the egg, so that he could hide the ring in it, and then resealed with some melted chocolate before re-wapping and packaging the whole thing!

I'm sure she must have been blown away to find the sparkler beautifully wrapped and hidden in her egg and my brother on bended knee! Too cute!

And if that wasn't enough to have me beaming from ear to ear, I also learned that my cousin had a healthy baby girl! Oooh let the girly baby knits begin!

Wishing you all a Happy Easter,
Sam :)

The good, the bad and the ugly

Bad news first: I did run out of the yarn for my snuggly soft slimline last night. I literally reached the row before casting off on the 2nd shoulder to see this little bit of yarn left:

The good news: I was able to scoop up enough from the 'ends' (you know where one ball finishes and the next starts) to finish up the 2nd sleeve. Phew.


The Ugly: I still have the collar to knit!

My MIL was saying maybe it didn't need a collar and DH thinks that I should add a fur collar... 'errrm no' on both counts. I'm thinking that picking up some of this yarn in a different dyelot might not be the end of the world as it's just for the collar. And if there's a bit of difference in the shade it might be ok. (Better the collar than the top of the sleeve, right).

But before I resort to that, I'm going to continue the hunt for colour 31015 in the elusive dyelot 32.

We (may) have a problem

I've been working on the Debbie Bliss Slimline Jacket again. In fact I've only got a shoulder and a collar left.

But I'm rapidly running out of yarn!

The creative directors are concerned too:
Running out of yarn you say? Let me inspect...

Hmm very worrisome indeed
(check out the furrowed brow!)

So, I've hit the usual suspects - Ravelry, eBay, Google and put out a couple of feelers... Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

Some more socks

I've started on another pair of socks (to try and make a dent in that ever-growing stash of sock yarn). With summer coming up I decided on the Lacy Summer Socks from Knitting Lingerie Style.


I love this pattern; that the sock is working up so quickly and I'm learning a new approach to sock knitting (yes, another attempt at toe up).

I've never done a toe like this - where you have a provisional cast on, knit one side of the toe, then knit the other before picking up all the stitches to start working in the round.

Ooh and the yarn -- Socks that Rock in Little Bunny Foo Foo colourway (maybe they'll be my Easter socks?)

Noro socks

The Noro socks are finished:

• Yarn: Noro Kureyon Sock
• Needles: Size 2 dpns
• Method: Cuff to toe
• For: Me!
• Size: 8 foot (US) 6 (UK)

Pattern: I used a variation of my basic sock recipe, with the following modifications:

• Size 2 needle
• Cast on 66 stitches
• Stitch pattern: Rows 1-3: (K2, P1) repeat to end. Row 4: (CR2, P1) repeat to end.
• CR2 = Knit into the 2nd stitch on your left needle (and leave it on the needle), then knit into the 1st stitch on your needle. Slip both stitches off the left needle. (It's a baby cable without a fiddly cable needle)

And that's it!

Slow progress

So after a pretty productive week last week, knitting has almost slowed to a halt.

I'm still plugging away on the Debbie Bliss slimline cardigan. The plan is to try and finish this one whilst it's still cold enough to snuggle up in. And I'm also trying to finish the Koigu (oops I was having a brain freeze, thanks Wanda :) NORO socks, which are getting pretty close now:

Oooh and this lovely project bag was kindly gifted to me by Kelly. I love the little sheep on it!

And talking of new goodies, Bea tipped me off to check out NH Knitting Mama's yarn on Etsy. Oh yes, this could be dangerous. I went on the other day and purhased the following yarn that not only looks fab, but is also an Alapca blend. Yum.

Mission accomplished

It's been a week of hectic knitting to get the Shetland Triangle completed for my friend's 50th birthday today:

• Pattern: Shetland Triangle by Evelyn A. Clark (from Interweave 'Wrap Style')
• Yarn: Hand Maiden Fine Yarn - Sea Silk (1 skein/400m). This is an interesting blend of 70% silk and 30% seacell. It's nice and soft, but what I love most is the subtle change in colour throughout the skein.
• Needles: Size 6 (4mm)
• Modifications: The pattern calls for 8 repeats of the body pattern. However at 8 repeats this non-stretchy yarn would have been barely large enough to be a headscarf! I did a little research on Ravelry and found that you can get 11 repeats out of one skein of sea silk, together with the neck and edging section. This is a much better size. (IMO)

I do love this pattern -- if you need to whip out a quick gift it's a winner. A very simple, easy to remember repeat that knit's up quickly (especially if you get a yarn that would stretch more, so you could get away with just doing 8 repeats of the pattern).

Now to find a nice box to package it in...