Tag Archives: Joy of Sox

Two To Tango: Or “I Could Have Danced All Night”

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Started Sock Pattern #2 in The Joy of Sox – “Two to Tango”.  I am totally addicted.  I did not want to put these down, but I am down to the wire now on my secret (gift) projects.  I really like fair isle, but I am pretty new to it.  I have never done it in a sock.  I have had tension problems when I tried it once with a mitten, so now I am really focusing on “keeping it loose and relaxed”.  This seems to be working.  I am using the technique where you have one color in your left hand and one in your right.  So I guess I am knitting Continental style from the left, and English from the right.  Talk about making a person feel like a real knitter!

First though, I knitted the cutest fun cuff.  It’s got a little ruffle to it.

And now – see the fishies?

This yarn is so soft and squishy too.  It’s the Knit Picks Stroll – Tonal.  It feels so nice and is awesome to knit with.  The colors are just right too.  I can’t wait to get back to it today!

Yesterday we had a nice Father’s Day.  Davey wanted an entire party.  We went to Walmart, and he wanted balloons, streamers, cups, decorations, and games.  We settled for a small cake, candle and singing “Happy Father’s Day to you”. This made him very happy – oh and David too!

And finally.  Yesterday David overheard Davey talking to our little Daisy girl.  She’s an older girl who we adopted a few years ago.  So Davey was sitting with her saying: “We love you sooooo much.  You are a precious girl.  You love wagging your tail and eating food and drinking water.”  Sweet boy.

Heel Flap, Turn Heel, Shape Gusset

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Moving right along on my sock!  (A Roll in the Hay) Yesterday I knitted the heel flap.  I did a slip stitch heel, and I just thought it looked so nice with this yarn in particular.  Here it is!

Next, I turned the heel:

I am fascinated by the heel of a sock.  You take a tube, add a flap, pick up stitches and make this cool heel.

So now I am working on “Shaping the Gusset”.   If that term doesn’t make a person feel like a “real knitter”, nothing will!

It occurred to me that after I finish this sock, I need to knit the other one.   That’s a problem when I am already looking longingly towards the next pattern.  I don’t suppose that I could work my way through the book, knitting only one sock from each pattern.  What if I promised to come back and knit the second ones later?  I know, bad bad idea.  The second sock should go much more quickly though now that I have figured the pattern out.

And then I will start a pattern called Two To Tango!  It involves a little color work where I will knit little fishies!

It’s pretty cool outside today (relatively speaking).  Davey likes to go downtown and “stroll”.  He gets in his stroller and we wander around town. So I think we are going to go do that now before it gets too warm or the sun comes back out.

Finally, this morning, David and Davey were building.  I was trying to take pictures of them, and Davey kept saying, “Mommy you startled me!” everytime the flash went off.

Davey loved the giraffe they built:

Her Bags are packed…she’s ready to go.

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Frazzled hot sweaty Arkansas Christina is all set to go to London.  I know this is a little weird, but I couldn’t stand to seal her up in a plastic bag for protection.  I had to leave it open at the top which kind of defeats the purpose of protection.  I didn’t much like taping her in the envelope either.  Maybe quite a bit weird.  But Davey and I are getting ready to take her to the post office.

I am through with the leg of my Roll in the Hay Sock and am starting the heel flap!  I made it through the transition row! There was some errata for that row as well that I found on ravelry.  I was able to figure out it though without too much trouble.

I will take pictures of the heel process.  I love making the heel of a sock.  There are several ways to do it, but I only know one. (Although, as I work my way through this book, I have a feeling I will learn others.)  I do a standard heel, and it is just such fun.

Ok, time to go say bon voyage to mini-me.  Oh, I started re-reading A Walk in the Woods last night by Bill Bryson.  I read it probably 10 years ago.  I made the mistake of starting it right before I went to sleep.  David was already asleep.  Bill Bryson makes me laugh so much.  I was trying to not wake David up, so laughter tears were just rolling.  He is magical in his humorous writing.  I love him.  I guess I am stating the obvious when I say that I highly recommend this book.  As an added bonus, I am learning a lot about the Appalachian Trail.

Davey is feeling totally recovered an is back to his normal energetic self.  Yay for that.

Ok, now I am getting the hang of it.

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Ok, the Roll in the Hay socks are progressing nicely.  I have got the hang of the pattern!  Here is what happens to me a lot in knitting.  What at first seems almost impossibly hard to figure out next becomes very simple.   I guess maybe that’s life in general huh!  So I am just going right along on my sock.  Basically it’s a k2 p2 rib with these triangles thrown in for good measure!

Here is something else I am excited about.  Stitch London teamed up with London’s Science Museum  for this Who am I? project.  Crafters are encouraged to knit, crochet or sew a mini version of themselves.  Once complete, I am supposed to send it to London where it will be part of an exhibit in the museum.  You can read more about it at: http://www.stitchldn.com/stitchyourself.html

So,  I finished mine this morning.  It’s time for her grand unveiling.  I have created “Frazzled Hot Sweating Arkansas Summer Christina”.  She is wearing her standard t-shirt, shorts and Birkenstocks.  Hair styling is an impossibility, so she has made an attempt to pull it back into a ponytail.

Now I have to mail her to London.  This makes me kind of sad.  However,  I bet it is lots lots cooler in London and not as humid.  She’ll probably be very happy that I sent her!

Here she is! (please don’t make fun of her funny left arm.  She’s really sensitive about it.)

Rippppit. Ripppppppit

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Yep.  Frogged ’em.  I still like the feel of bamboo sock yarn, but this yarn is not meant for a pattern where there is so much texture and stitch definition.  So I have begun again.  I had some Knit Picks Gloss in Burgundy in my small stash.   It is 70% wool and 30% silk.  Going to try that.

I had reached a row in my pattern that I could just not figure out.  I was befuddled.  Thank goodness for Ravelry.  I messaged the author of the pattern. (Her name is Gina House, and she is very helpful and friendly!)  She referred me to a forum where they had been discussing errata for the pattern and in particular, this row!  I can imagine it would be really frustrating to see errors in  your pattern after publish.  But thank goodness for ravelry.  Yeah, said that already.

If you knit this pattern, watch out for row 10.  I will be happy to point you to the errata for it.  There is also errata for the transition row.  I am not there yet so I have no idea what it is about.  However, here’s the cool thing that happens in row 10.   You slip 10 stitches and pass the first one over the other 9.  It is not easy to do, but creates that look of a sheaf of wheat.  Cool huh!  That part I was able to figure out, it was the rest of the row that I was having trouble with.

Luckily I am a “process” knitter instead of a “product” knitter.  So starting over again is of no consequence to me.  Yeah, I’ll keep telling myself that.   But I really minded a lot less than I thought I might.  It was good to test out the bamboo, and now I’ll see how this knitpicks knits up!

And now to Davey.  He is sick.  He had almost a 103 last night.  Now this morning it is back up to 102.  Poor thing.  He’s watching shows and is tucked into his little fold out sofa thing.  Pillow and little blanket and his “tas” (pacifiers) are all he wants at the moment.

We had some fun family/friend plans for the weekend – more this weekend than usual – but it happens. Here’s Davey a few days ago feeling great!  Here’s  hoping he will be back to this in a day or so!

Friday and my pattern begins to emerge

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We just drove in from Texarkana this morning.  We spent the night there last night with Davey’s Pa.  Davey just loves to play with his Pa, and they had a great time.  We went to Chick Fil-A and played in the play area there.  Later we went to the park, where Davey played with several kids. (They are all friends to him.  There are no children who are strangers to him!)  The highlight (maybe for me the most!) was feeding the ducks.  We fed them an entire loaf of bread.  These ducks were practiced in the art of getting bread.  Many of them could catch every bite you threw to them in mid-air!  We’d look up and see more ducks running to us just as fast as they could waddle.  That was a funny sight!  Davey loved it.

I didn’t knit much on my sock, as I have to concentrate  as I get used to the pattern which is now just beginning to emerge:

I plan to work on it more this afternoon.  Should probably be doing that while Davey is taking his nap.  He fell asleep on the drive home.  Even let me carry him in without really waking up.  I put him on the couch and he is sleeping away.  So much playtime and fun just wore him out!

Davey with his Daddy and Pa.  We were getting ready to leave.  He was pretty tired!

Modified Wheat Pattern

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Modified Wheat Pattern – it’s fun!  The pattern intimidated me a little bit at first.  I have to pay attention, but throughout the row you always settle back to 12 stitches that match up with your k2 p2 rib, so you can always figure out where you are.  There is a chart too, but I am a chart chicken.  I write out my rows on notecards to help me focus on one row at a time.  That helps me immensely.

And bamboo.  I think bamboo is just the coolest.  Literally!  When I pick up a ball of bamboo yarn, it always feels cool to the touch.  It is knitting up so pretty so far, and I don’t have any problems or worries about splitting.

We went walking last night on a trail near our house.  It’s a paved trail in town, but there are sections of it lined with bamboo.  I would love to learn about how it gets from pretty green stalks of bamboo, to the cool yarn with which I knit.

And now a little about Davey.  We got him some new googles to wear to the water park.  He loves them.  The first photo is a little blurry, but I wanted to show how he always wants to hold his mouth as he gets used to his new goggles.  I included a profile pic as well!