Hedera finished

I actually finished this Hedera sock a couple of weeks ago. It was supposed to be my April socks for the sock-a-month KAL, but now it's my May one. I thought I'd better post this before it became my June socks.
The socks are done in Fortissima Colori Disco Socka Color, which is 71% superwash, 26% polyamide, and 3% metalized polyester. It's the first expensive sock yarn I've ever used. At least, I consider it expensive. For me, with short legs and narrow feet, it took 2 - 50g balls to make the socks. To get the colors to match, I did one sock by taking yarn from the outside of the ball. I did the other sock on the other ball by taking yarn from the inside.
If I had it to do over, I would have used smaller needles. (I used size 3 since I hadn't yet bought any size 1s.) I would have also done the second yo differently. I did both yo's in the pattern by yarning over front to back. If I had it to do over, I would have done the second one back to front -- hopefully, to keep the holes approximately the same size. Or, maybe, to get bigger holes, I would do the first one back to front and the second one front to back.
My other project, other than unpacking boxes and working in the garden, is Tempting II.

Things settling down

Things are settling down -- not so much as they have settled down but that things have started to get into a routine.
The trip to Turkey was great. The weather for the eclipse was almost perfect. (For details, look on the web at eclipse-chasers -- which is hosted by one of the leaders of the tour.) Turkey is a fantastic place. Highlights for me (other than the eclipse) were visiting the ancient site of Troy and, in another part of the country, seeing formations just like the ones on Tatooine (in the movie with the young Anakin Skywalker).
When we got back, it was time to resume unpacking from our recent move. (We closed on a house about a week before going to Turkey. We had been living in a rental until we could find a house.) Happily, two of our children came to visit also. They'll be leaving for university later this week. (Spring break at British universities lasts for a few weeks. Then after the break, students have exams that cover the entire year.) My 89-year-old mom is here, too. She's here for a visit now (since my sister and family are preparing for a cross-country move to the west coast). She'll be moving here in June.
As for knitting, I'm working on Hedera socks. I'm going to see if I can make them knee length (which isn't too hard) and if they will stay up (of which I'm hopeful given the stretch in the pattern).

Vacation

We'll be heading off for a week plus in Turkey soon. We're planning on watching the solar eclipse there as well as doing a lot of sightseeing. We'll also get to see our children for the first time since Christmas. (They all attend university.)

Tubey finished

I finally finished Tubey!! It's a great way to use up extra yarn. (A doorknob is hiding behind one of the sleeves.)
After redoing Tubey (from knitty.com) quite a few times, I finally came up with something I like. I'm still not sure about the neck. I might add some stitches to the bottom of the neckline to make it higher. Instead of knitting 60 sts back and forth for the entire top, I decreased the number of stitches to 30 for the middle of the top with a garter stitch edging to keep it from curling. I'm short; so I decreased the arm length by about an inch before the stripes and an inch after. The body is as in the pattern -- except it was long enough after I finished the last stripe.
I've been making a concerted effort to finish up projects since we close on a house tomorrow. Then the next day (and the day after) we'll get our boxes unloaded to our new house, and I'll get to start unpacking.

March socks

Well, I finally finished my first (and probably only) pair of toe-up socks. The cuff-down socks that I made for January and February for the sock a month KAL were relatively easy. This pair was extremely difficult. First, I had to redo the toe several times to get it the right width and also to be able to pick up stitches from the cast on edge to work the rest of the sock. Then I had to redo the short-row heel several times. Evidently, my high arches don't just mean that it's hard for me to find shoes that fit; they also mean that I have to do some adjusting to get a heel to fit. I had to add a few stitches to the sole half of the sock before starting the heel to be able to get a heel that wasn't stretched out of shape. After redoing the heel quite a few times, it finally looked ok. Then I thought all I had to do was a little bit of ribbing and the cast off. The ribbing was ok, but I ended up doing a very loose crochet bind off in order to be able to be able to get the sock on.
The socks are made with one 50g skein of Moda Dea Sassy Stripes 100% acrylic yarn. Details of how I made this sock was made are at my other knitting blog.
On the plus side, I found out that it was possible to make a pair of socks with one 50g skein of yarn -- 150m. (I knit one sock to a point just past the heel with the outside of the skein, then put the skein inside the sock and knit the other sock with the inside of the skein.) I found out that acrylic is warmer than a wool blend. And I became almost an expert at doing short-row heels and toes.

Skirt

Since there was a discussion on knittyboard about skirts, I thought I'd post a picture of the one and only skirt that I've made. I made it out of some cheap worsted-weight acrylic yarn that was on sale for a very low price. It's really comfortable, doesn't stretch except at the waist and probably a little bit lengthwise, and is really warm to wear around the house. I keep thinking I should make another, but there are always other projects that get in the way. Here's the link to my directions for making the skirt: http://journals.aol.com/carolsch/Myknittingpage/entries/250 . The bottom of the skirt is done in a checkerboard pattern (each square is 4 sts by 6 rows so that they're square) with occasional cable overs.
The main things to remember are to make the waist a little smaller than your waist and to make the hips a little larger.

Sherman sock thoughts

The Sherman sock toe has sort of a moccasin look on the sides (don't know if it's me or the pattern). So, for turning the heel, I decided against using the directions as the heel and decided to use the directions from knitty.com for toe-up patterns -- with the wraps and double wraps.
LATER UPDATE: This still didn't work. So after staring at the sock (and a cuff-down sock) for quite a while, here's what I'm going to try. First of all, I have half the sock stitches on one circular needle and the other half (the sole) on another. Starting 3" before the heel, increase by 2 sts every other round by doing k1, m1, knit to last st, m1, k1 on the sole needle, 4 times. Then use the directions for the short-row heel (haven't decided to go back to the Sherman one or use another one). Then decrease 2 sts every other round by doing k1, k2tog, knit to 2nd to last st, k2tog tbl, k1 on sole needle, 4 times. I hope this works. I'm getting very discouraged with toe-up socks.

sock and Tubey updates

After quite a few false starts, I've finally got the toe done on my Sherman sock. (The pattern is probably in a few different places, but the place I found it is in a Yahoo group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Socknitters/message/59091

I found that I had to place a short strand of yarn at the end of each row as I made it in order to figure out where to end the next row that direction. It took my full concentration. Plus, I started by using a crochet provisional cast on and then found that the loops were hard to find after removing the crochet yarn. So, I restarted with a single cast on. Then after getting a few rows past the toe, I decided that it was going to be too wide. So, I frogged again and cast on 22 instead of 26 stitches. Finally, I decided to do a Crusoe pattern after that. (I love a good pun. A stranded sock called Crusoe is in that category.) Unfortunately, the sock looked better on the plain side than the stranded side. (It's Moda Dea Sassy Stripes yarn -- which I thought I'd try even though I do like the Magic Stripes yarn I used for my two previous socks.) The yarn has a nice pattern to it. Maybe I'll try the Crusoe sock in unstriped yarn.
More in the "I like to FROG" vein: I've frogged my Tubey sweater quite a few times as well. The first time I frogged, I frogged to the top of the first sleeve so that I could make the sleeve fitted to the elbow. Then after finishing the shrug part and getting about 20 rows down on the tube part, I decided I didn't like the neck. It turned under; it felt tight at the back of my neck; and there was so much knitting that was hidden. So I frogged the tube, one sleeve, and most of the back -- and then made the neck squarer with garter stitch around the sides and back of the neck. The neck is a lot wider now even though I made it so I would cast on fewer stitches for the tube in front.

February dishcloth

I just finished the mid-February dishcloth from the MonthlyDishcloth Yahoo group. I started it in one color but decided that the color I was using didn't do justice to the pattern. So I bought Sugar n Cream Cool Breeze Ombre and really like the results. I used the least noticeable cast one that I knew -- the single cast on. Then I finally found a matching, I think, bind off -- the crochet bind off.
(While I was buying yarn for this dish cloth, I bought yarn for a few more. Making dishcloths is great.) -- The picture makes the dishcloth appear darker than it is. It is actually a fairly light color.

Jaywalkers now finished

I've finally finished the Jaywalker socks for my DH. Surprisingly, for me, I didn't make many changes to the original pattern. Also, surprisingly, his foot is just 1/2" longer than mine. Though, his ankle and instep are an inch wider. He also has a wider heel -- which is no surprise since I have a very narrow heel. Because of his short feet, I was able to use just one ball of Magic Stripes yarn.
The original pattern is at: http://magknits.com/Sept05/patterns/jaywalker.htm . Details of how I made this sock was made are at my other knitting blog.
I'm looking forward to making my next pair of socks. If it hadn't been for the sock-a-month KAL, I probably would have stopped after the first pair of socks. But now, I find that I enjoy making socks and am looking forward to making my next pair (toe-up socks).
I'm also enjoying making dishcloths -- thanks to the MonthlyDishcloths Yahoo group that I found out about on knittyboard.com.

Washing Magic Stripes

I'm happy. After dreading and postponing washing my first pair of socks -- made with Magic Stripes yarn --, I finally decided to wash them. I put them in the washing machine with the rest of my clothes -- hot wash, cold rinse -- and then the dryer. They came out perfect -- no shrinking, no expanding. They look better than when I finished knitting them in the first place.

Sock ideas

Mom's Fast Florida Footies by LynnH at http://lynnh.com/patterns/florida.htm has some nice ideas for socks. First is the cuff. Instead of having k2p2 or k1p1, the cuff is k one round followed by a k1s1 round -- to make a rolled cuff. The heel flap is done in a modified garter stitch -- ie, knit the WS rows, k1s1 the RS rows. The heel is turned w the same stitch and the regular directions for turning a heel. The sole of the foot is done w purl stitches (and the top with knit stitches). Though, I'm unsure why the whole sole isn't done in garter stitch. ---- a lot to think about
I enjoy the planning more than the making. And I like to start planning even before I'm finished w a project that will use the same needles.
I'm also thinking of doing my next sock with crochet thread (the larger diameter kind).

Tubey, a further update

I increased the number of rows for the back part of the shrug to 138 from 130. That crocheted provisional cast on is nice!! I can't see where it was. With 138 rows for the back, I'll have 69 chain stitches on the sides (1 chain loop per 2 rows). Then my plan is to work k3, yo across the back to end up w 92 sts across the back. (69 + 23 = 92)

Tubey update

I frogged the sleeve I was working on (the first sleeve) because I wanted some shaping. So, I decided to decrease 2 sts every 10th row to end up with 50 sts from the original 60. Then I decided to keep the bell part of the bell sleeves by increasing 5 sts evenly around. Instead of doing (k10, m1)5 times, I did k5, yo, (k10, yo) 4 times, k5. Then to keep there from being a hole from the yo, I knit into the back of the yo in the next row. Finally, for the jogless color change, I picked up the stitch in the bottom row by picking up the back of the stitch below (before putting it on the left-hand needle) which gives a short of twist to the stitch below. I guess after knitting on Cinxia for so long, I've grown to like twisted stitches. :)
When I get to the other sleeve, I'm going to knit a few rows flat before starting knitting in the round, to make the back a little bit roomier (as suggested at tubeyknitalong.blogspot.com).

Jaywalker update

68 stitches cast on works. I've done 14 rounds of k2p2 and then 26 rounds of the Jaywalker pattern. Now it's about 5" long and I'm ready to start the heel.
I haven't decided what to do with Cinxia. The neck is a little too big for my liking. I have worn it and found it to be nice and warm. I'm debating whether to wear it as is, redo the collar and neck to make it smaller, or to frog it and make a skirt with the yarn. (I've frogged whole sweaters before. I figure it's better to frog than not to wear.)

Jaywalker sock sizing

Since a cast on of 52 stitches worked for the last pair of socks I made (for me for k2p2 socks), I thought that a cast on of 60 stitches would work (for my DH for Jaywalker socks -- pattern at http://magknits.com/Sept05/patterns/jaywalker.htm). I'm using Magic Stripes yarn with 2 size 3 circular needles. Well, after doing the socks down to the ankle, I decided to FROG. The socks fit me but probably wouldn't fit my DH. So, I'm going to cast on 68 stitches this next time. I already decided to do 14 rows of ribbing instead of just an inch and to do k3tog tbl instead of the dd.

Plans for next socks

My next pair of socks will probably for my DH. Though this may change, I'm currently thinking of using the dark, almost black, Magic Stripes yarn along with a jaywalker pattern and a heel that people are talking about in knitty.com now (s1k1 pattern on RS rows of heel and p on WS rows). --
Tubey is going well. I'm on the first sleeve.

finally finished

I've finally finished with both my first pair of socks and Cinxia. The socks are knit with Magic Stripes yarn and 2 size 3 circular needles. I decided to make it a short sock to hopefully fit with and look well with tennis shoes. The k2p2 pattern down the top is to get a tighter fitting sock. Details of the pattern are at my other knitting blog.

almost finished w sock & Cinxia

I have great hopes of finishing my socks and also Cinxia over the weekend. I'll have plenty of time to knit tonight with 2 hours of Stargate and 1 of Monk. I'm down to the cuff of the second sleeve for Cinxia (which since I'm knitting it from the top down, is the last I need to do on it). I'm halfway through the second sock. Though I still haven't decided how to finish of the toe of the first. I'm strongly leaning towards turning it inside out and crocheting the leftover loops together or else binding them off from the inside.
When I finally get these projects done, I've promised myself that I can start on Tubey.

almost finished w first sock

I'm almost finished knitting my first sock. I've redone the toe a few times. Hopefully, this time it will turn out -- right length and right shape. Then I'll have to work on seaming the tip of the toe together. While I'm thinking about what I want to do with the sock, I've been working on the second sleeve for Cinxia.