Good bye Socktober.

Last day of Socktober. I feel like school really got in the way of my Socktober.

I did knit socks... The only thing I knitted that wasn't a sock was two washcloths, and I started a scarf at my first guild meeting. Haven't touched the scarf since.

During this month I finished:

My second pair of Sock Wars socks. When they arrived I only had a cuff. So we'll say 1.75 socks.
The Toe-Up Pomatomus socks for my boyfriend were finished. These were longer than average Pomatomus socks too. 1.5 Pomatomus knit during Socktober.
The THIRD pair of Sock Wars socks has also made major progress. 1.25 knitted during Socktober.
Also a Christmas gift (socks) was worked on 0.25 for that one cause it wasn't worked on till my boyfriends socks were done.

Total socks for the month: 4.75 socks this month. It's a lot when you look at it like that. Just imagine what I could accomplish if I didn't have massive homework getting in they way all the time.

Here's a picture of the Third pair of sock wars socks... This is some really nice yarn. I'm half tempted to keep them for myself they're so incredibly soft.

Toe-up FO

Toe-up Pomatomus are finished. Toe-up socks look so awkward, especially with these ribbing patterns that make the shape look funky. These socks are a little off anyways since I had did both of them differently in the heel. But that was me experimenting.

Pattern: Pomatomus modified to be toe-up

Yarn: Knit Picks' Memories in color Yukon

These are going into the box of wool and mothballs until Christmas. The 3rd Socks of Doom are going to be picked up and knitted with fury, and I'm going to get working on more x-mas gifts. Maybe a test knit. Who knows. My mom made the comment the other night.... "Maybe you should start shopping for gifts." I don't want to buy all my gifts. I want to knit something for everyone, or at least the majority.

There are only 5 more pairs of socks that I plan to make, and according to my counter there are 1 month, 4 weeks and 1 day till x-mas. Since I can't knit right up until x-mas, I'm going to say I have about 8 weeks to make 5 pairs of socks. Which means I'd have to knit 1.25 socks a week. Hm... can I do it? Maybe, maybe not.

Plus I have socks of Doom to make. This sock wars is slowing me down.

Yarn Mail

Some lovely yarn arrived in the mail today. To bad it's going to be turned into Socks of Doom!

I worry there won't be enough. One ball does say 50grams, and there are two of them so I hope it's plenty!

I love Dishcloths.

Remember that dishcloth I started a few days ago for the Monthly Dishcloth KAL? It's finished. Well, it's finished in all it's dishcloth glory. What makes this my new favorite dishcloth?

I like the shadow knitting stuff. I like it a lot in fact. I realized what this was the day the orange was started and from that point on I was thrilled. My sister adores candy corn, so she was thrilled that it was a candy corn dishcloth. As soon as I showed her that it was candy corn she asked me if I would have enough yarn left to make her one. Her birthday is tomorrow, the ends were woven in before dinner and it was passed on to her. She was thrilled. She kept trying to show my dad just why it was so cool.

Pattern: October's Mid-Month KAL from Monthly Dishcloth KAL

Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream in colors Hot Orange, White, and Yellow; Lion Cotton in color Black

Socktoberfest

More Socktoberfest!

Still pumping along on the Pomatomus socks. I'm half way through the heel and all is good. Cross my fingers and they'll be finished by the end of October. Cross my fingers again and I will have gotten my next Sock Wars socks in the mail to complete and those will also be finished by the end of October. I'm just awaiting my package.

Socktoberfest and Dishcloth KALs

I recently joined the Monthly Dishcloth KAL. What can I say, mystery patterns that you don't figure out till the end.... there's nothing better. And it's a washcloth, not a mystery sweater, sock, or other project that could take much longer.
Here's what I did today. I was irritated at the lack of colors at the store, then I realized later that they did in fact have all the colors so I angrily went back and bought the colors. I decided I'm going to go through and make a list of colors needed for future KALs and write them down so I can buy one at a time with all my coupons. :-D


And since I shouldn't deprive anyone of a Sock update. Here it is. Pomatomus number two has make progress! Mm...more pooling. I'm actually getting annoyed with this pooling. I just don't like it. Oh well, maybe next time.

Sock Wars Socks II

Second pair of Sock Wars socks completed and shipped! This time I remembered to take a picture. The photo doesn't do it justice though.

Pattern: Socks of Doom...duh.

Yarn: Muskoka? Not sure, but that's on the label. It's merino and it was sent to me by the lovely lady I killed.

Also I bought something today.... MOTHBALLS! Lavender scented moth balls in little clear pouches. So I take the mothballs, throw seven pouches into my yarn and hopefully I will never see moths.

I've never had problems with moths before, but when I say that I don't do anything to protect my yarn, people flip and tell me I need to. So now there is protection.

More additions to the stash.

I said back in September I was going to have all yarn into 2 boxes by the next year.

So far it isn't going to well. I've been buying cotton like it's going out of style. Just yesterday I decided I needed cotton, especially since dishcloths/facecloths/washcloths are quick and could make some great gifts. Well, I figured since I'm always getting these 40% off coupons for JoAnns I might as well buy one ball of cotton with each coupon. This was purchased today. Upon arriving home from JoAnns I was informed there was a coupon in the paper sunday, so I think I'm off to buy another ball of cotton tomorrow. Then I got another coupon in the mail today. Yup, I'm on a major buy cotton mission. I figure the more cloths I have in a variety of colors, the easier it will be to gift them whenever needed.

My ultimate goal is to get a container of just finished gift projects that can be given away as presents, if I can't find anyone to gift them too, they can eventually go to charity.

Unfortunately there wasn't much knitting today because all I wanted to do was spin. I'm really starting to like the way this roving looks spun up. It's nice. I can't wait to see what it looks like plied. It might be awhile though, it always seems like I'm not making a dent in the bag of roving.

My Knitting Life is Over...

ETA: I added a link to the pattern since everyone was curious to where I got it. It was off a Bernat label I had, but they've got a link on their site if you sign up with them. Doesn't cost anything, except they might send you some junk knitting mail, but is it really junk if it's about knitting?

I knit a dishcloth/washcloth/facecloth! I like it! This has nothing to do with the title of the blog, but this is here to make this post much happier. If you chose to read on, you'll understand my pain.Pattern: Got it off that blue cotton yarn label I bought last weekend. Online Pattern
Yarn: Peaches and Creme color Pink Lemonade

Now for the life is over knitting news:

I have acne. Or at least that's what I was blaming the massive blemishes that randomly appeared and disappeared from my face.

I hadn't had any sort of horrible acne in years, but all of a sudden it was back with fury. No matter how much I washed it wouldn't go away, and it just itched like no other.

Then tonight my mom brought up an interesting point. The conversation went as follows:

Mom: Did you pick your face today?

Me: No! I haven't picked my face; in fact, when I woke up this morning my skin was great, even said to myself don't have to put cover-up on because it looks good. Then I show up to my observation and see myself in the mirror. My face looked like crap.

Mom: Maybe you're allergic to that yarn.

Me: No, this yarn is cotton, I can't be allergic to cotton, all of my clothes are cotton.

Me: Oh no... what if I'm allergic to wool?

The more thinking I did the more I think it may be the wool. I looked fine when I went to my boyfriend's Saturday, but upon leaving for a movie I lost my mind because the "acne" had flared up again... Prior to my looking in the mirror I had been working on his blue Pomatomus socks made from 100% merino wool. I also looked fine when I woke up this morning before doing a few rounds on the Sock Wars socks...

All the other socks I've worked on recently for Sock Wars have also been 100% merino wool...

It's not looking too good. Then I thought back to summer. My "acne" wasn't horrible then, but I didn't really knit with wool all summer, it was mostly acrylic. I use a lot of acrylic.

What to do? All my Christmas gifts that I was planning on making were to be done out of wool yarn. So I'm going to keep knitting them, stop touching my face and see if that helps. If not we'll move to plan 2: keep knitting, stop touching face, and add some allergy medication into the mix.

The real test will come after Christmas knitting is done. I'm going to stop using wool for a month or two and see if it goes away.

I've heard a lot of people say they get allergies from chemicals used when wool is processed, but not actual wool itself, so hopefully spinning my own wool and using it will still go over. It's something I'm going to test and play around with. We'll see what happens.

No More Fun Folks

Fall Break's over. Fun time's gone. Back to the evils of college. My weekend full of knitting adventure was great even if my hands are so cramped that I can't type right now.

Went to my first local guild meeting tonight. It was fun. I paid dues for the rest of the year, only to go to a Pep Band meeting afterwards and find out that I can't make it to the next three official guild meetings. Bummer. That's the bad thing about pep band. When I first discovered the world of blogging last year, it was during pep band season, so I couldn't make it to these SNB groups because the meetings were on Pep Band game nights. The practices never conflict, just the games.

Anyways, we started scarves at the guild meeting. I dug some Red Heart from the stash for the occasion. I hate this scarf. It isn't the yarn though, I think I'm just using needles that are too small. It's too hard to cable with fabric this thick, so I'm going to go up to size 10 and see what happens.

In other news, I cast on for Blue Pomatomus #2 yesterday, and actually started knitting today.

One Pomatomus

Finished the first Pomatomus. Finally. It was actually finished yesterday morning, but because my boyfriend and I have practically spent all weekend together, nothing really got posted about. As soon as I finished the sock I tried it on my foot out of fear it would be too small. And it was TIGHT! So I worried, tried to assure myself his legs were thinner than mine, and forced him to try it on when he got here last night.

I made him pose for pictures, but then he wouldn't take it off, because it was his and he wanted to wear it.

I know, I know... hard to see. But he likes blue. It's easy to see the pattern in real life, just impossible to take a picture of.And it pooled everywhere except fort he heel and toe. Go figure.

This makes me wonder. The washing instructions say hand wash. The thing I want to know is whould it hurt the socks if they were machine washed cold on a delicate or gentle cycle? This has been bugging me. My mom told me to go ahead and wash on cold, but I don't want to ruin them either. Opinions please?

Now comes the real task of remembering how I made the first one. I took very little notes, and I faced so many stupid little issues making it toe up, things that could definitely be fixed on the second, but I feel like I should make the second the same as the first.

Stash Enhancement

At Walmart of all places. Can't beat cheap cotton though.

Did everyone know Bernat is doing Cotton now? I don't think I was aware. The story starts with my trip to Walmart, I just had to take a look at the yarn section, I always do. Usually I don't buy anything, although I'm a Red Heart fan, I have a small store I usually shop at that is owned by a lovely women who runs it out of her home.

Not only is she cheaper than Walmart (by $1 sometimes), but she has 10 times the color choices. She stocks Bernat, but I haven't seen this at her store. I'll have to ask her about it next time I'm there.

So I purchased two of the colors. They are 12oz each and were $5.97? Something like that. Not bad, and much better color choices than the Peaches and Creame yarn also stocked at Walmart. Not only that but they have some pretty cool dishcloth patterns on them too. I'm actually considering making one of the patterns on the lable.

In socktoberfest news? I'm really close to finishing the Pomotomus sock, which would mean just one more left to go. Sock Wars socks are coming along too but I'll save that stuff for future updates.

Pictures of Sock Wars Socks

Pattern: The Sock Wars Pattern
Yarn: KnitPicks Merino Style in Hollyberry

Here are the pictures of the sock wars socks that were sent to Astabeth. She took these pictures because if you remember correctly, I forgot to.

The boyfriends socks are going to be somewhat abandoned. They're not going to be the sole project I work on. I'm going to mix some other socks in the mix so I can get several pairs done by Christmas.

Socks in the Mail.

Socks in the mail today, but these weren't socks of death.

I sent my socks to Astabeth last Saturday, and she promptly shipped her unfinished socks to me after she was killed on Monday. What a sweet person. I'd been talking to her via e-mail throughout the whole thing, so it was sad to ship the socks, but it had to be done.

And the partial sock she sent me is really pretty. I like green, and this yarn is really soft. I may have to look into buying some of it for myself (once the stash is reduced of course).

Speaking of stash... didn't I say last month that I was going to get it all into two boxes before next September? So far, I haven't gotten rid of anything. In fact, I might have even more yarn now than I had before. Oops.

The hecktic part of my week is over. I hope to have more posts with lots of knitting content all weekend.

My boyfriends socks? Our anniversary is still Monday, and I'm still on the first sock. It isn't looking promising, so I think I might aim for Christmas, or even his birthday. If I put them off for his birthday it would give me a chance to get other relatives knitted gifts done for Christmas. It isn't looking too good though.

ughhhhhhhhhhhh

That's how I feel right now so this will be a quick post.

It's midterm week.

I have tons of things due this week in school, and I think I'd be okay if it weren't for this midterm tomorrow. It's one of those classes where I just feel like the teacher doesn't get it. She tells us one thing, and the other classes another.

This test is taking me away from other things, like the take home test and paper due on Wednesday. I don't have much to show for either of them. The take home test will be easy enough, it's the paper that I worry about. I also have a bulliten board proposal due Thursday, but that was started this morning, so I'm no longer afraid of it.

Oh, and I have to do 6 hours of observation this week. That's far worse than it should be.

The only progress on knitting, is a heel in the boyfriend's socks. The goal of finishing them by next Monday isn't looking too good.
Then again, maybe I should look at the bright side. I don't study for anything and do reasonably well. So as much as I've studied, I should be in phenominal shape.

Socktoberfest!

It's October 1st, and Socktoberfest has officially started.

So I've been thinking about what I wanted to do for Socktoberfest. I missed out last year because I had no clue about the wonderful world of knit blogs and the online knitting community.

Sock yarn isn't hard to find ideas for, it's very easy. Hey, maybe I should make a pair of socks with it! It's discontinued? Socks for me then! We all know we can't give away yarn that we may never find again.

Sometime this summer I decided it would be a great idea to knit my entire household a pair of socks for Christmas, and of course my boyfriend would get socks too because he's my boyfriend and I always knit or crochet him something for gifts. Then, the Grandmas got thrown into the picture. They should get socks too.

I've already collected all the yarn for these gifts, the trick now is to get every last one of them knit before Christmas.

My boyfriends are the farthest along. In fact, these socks are being aimed for our anniversary. Unfortunately it's a week from Monday. 9 days. I'm to the heel on the first sock. Probably not possibe, but I also have fall break coming up so hopefully they will get finished, even if I have to sit around on the day of our anniversary and finish up the last sock.


I worry about how these socks will hold up to use. They're on size 2 needles, but the needles are just too big for the yarn. They were the needles called for in the pattern though and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to alter the pattern enough to make it work. He could care less, tells me they'll be great, he knows he's getting them so it won't be a surprise, but I still care. I still worry. Chances are when he wears through the bottoms because the gauge was so loose he'll come running back to me insisting that I fix them.