New Knitting Projects

Slight alteration of plans for the sock pattern. Instead of the Opal Petticoat colorway -- which will be knitted into a vanilla sock -- I pulled a gorgeous skein of yellow/teal blend hand-dyed by Earthly Hues from the stash. This yarn is labeled a fingering weight and I am knitting it on size 2 needles. It is really, really close to a sport weight -- at least Lorna's Laces sport weight -- in my opinion. I knit sport weight on size 3s but that won't work for this pattern. Will post photos when more is completed and there is actually something to see. The pattern was knitted in a one-color yarn but I think will work OK in the yarn I selected which is a yummy blend of merino wool/cashmere/nylon. I'm not frogging unless it turns out to be way too large, which I don't think will happen.

While organizing stash I came across a HUGE amount of dish cloth yarn. Really nice colors and plains. So, I am now on a dish cloth knitting frenzy. They will be donated to Golden Retriever Rescue for our sales table.

I love hand-knitted dish cloths. My sister has me spoiled by knitting them for me. Uh-oh...she reads my blog! Guess I'm busted! She will insist that I knit my own from now on. LOL!

Photos of the cloths, too, when more are knitted.

Yard Sale and Of Course New Socks

Our town has a community yard sale weekend that officially began today, but many people (myself included) got a jump start on the weekend. Last night many of my knitting buddies showed up to check out the yarn that was for sale and help support Golden Retriever Rescue which benefitted from the $121.50 made at the sale. Thanks ladies!

I continued the sale today with some household items, books, etc. etc. More of the fun tomorrow morning. I had forgotten how much work a yard sale can be. My muscles won't forget for a while!

I am knitting the second sock of Summer Sox. I consider it to be the nicest of the summer cotton blends that I have used. But my hands are itching (figuratively speaking, of course) to knit with wool again, so I'm starting another pair of socks.

Opal is one of my favorite sock yarns and I haven't knit with any in quite a while. I pulled from my stash a skein in the colorway "Petticoat" and can't wait to knit on it tomorrow. Not using the usual basic sock pattern but rather am going to finally knit "Waving Lace Socks" from Favorite Socks book. I usually knit on a size 2 needle with 56 stitches. Because of the design in this sock pattern, I have to drop to a size 1 needle because the repeats require 64 stitches. This will be interesting...

The yard sale provided quite a bit of entertainment today for Patches and Lily. As you can see in the photo they needed naps. Patches is pushed against the glass bow window but Lily decided to stretch out on the chair. AAAAHHHH, that's the life!

Knitting in Public

Today is World-Wide Knit In Public Day. I am out-of-town so was unable to participate in the events in State College and Lewisburg but celebrated in my own way since Thursday. I have been attending an outdoor event which gives me a lot of knitting time. I don't get much opportunity to knit these days, so take advantage of every minute I can squeeze out of the day for knitting.

I finished the first sock from "Summer Sox" yarn and the second is on the needles. Truly, it is! I didn't have the second ball with me when I finished the first, so I picked up my Pi Shawl and started knitting on it again.

It is coming along. Progress is slow and will get slower when I get to the next k1, yo round which will take me to almost 600 stitches per row! Yikes. The Noro sock yarn is keeping this rhythmic knitting interesting as the colors change. The colors are bright and fun and do "pop" as I knit. That is the only good think I can say about this one-ply yarn. The spinning of it is inconsistent and changes from think to thicker to unspun roving in a short span. Then I go for a while and it is the normal fingering weight thickness. Also, I think it is rough so would not want it for a pair of socks. My other complaint is how tangled it is in the center of the ball. I pull out a short amount of yarn and a glob of tangled fiber pops out. I think I spend more time gently untangling that knitting. But, this will get done.

I am planning an garter stitch edging that also serves as the cast off. I think it will look very nice and will keep the edge from pulling toward the middle. Blocking should be interesting. More on that when the time comes.