I LOVE hand knit socks!!!

So the end of 2016 is in sight... and on the knitting front I will end this year just like last year... with hand knit socks on my needles.  Socks are my most FAVORITE thing to knit ... and in looking back over the last year they were pretty much the ONLY thing I knit.

I was curious how many socks I knit last year and by my count (and remember math is not my friend) I knit 32 socks... 16 pairs, but really 15 pairs and 2 single socks. The good thing is both of the single socks have their mates on the needles... I am amazed at me...LOL!!

Here are the first complete pair of socks made from my Opal Advent Calendar...

I did these in the Frankensocks style so there were lots of joins and ends to deal with but I do like the little bits and bobs of different stripes and colors. I wanted the Advent calendar so I'd get some different colors than I usually buy and I did. That purple and pink  were no where in my stash. This pair reads very "cool" and subdued to me... nice but different.  I finished these up on Christmas Eve...

So on Christmas Day I cast on the second pair of socks from the Opal Advent Calendar... and these are much brighter...

I picked out the skeins that were showing some yellow and orange... not many with yellow. The cuffs, heels and toes are a variety of yarns from my stash. Now these are even brighter in real life!  And did they knit up fast!! Like I said I cast on the first sock Sunday and I was finished with it on Tuesday. I don't remember the last time I knit a sock that fast.

Using 3 different skeins of yarn, in much bigger chunks sped up the process as there was less decision making.  And I'm always super motivated when starting a new skein of yarn to see what the repeat is going to look like...multiple that 3 times over and you get very speedy knitting!!!

The second sock is moving along nicely too. I took what was left of each skein and wound in into a ball so the sequence of the striping pattern is reversed.  It makes for scrappier looking socks in my opinion and then I'm again motivated to see what the repeat is going to look like... I know I could just turn the first sock upside down and see what is coming but hey....I'm easily amused here... and it keeps me off the streets at night!!! LOL

With a bit of luck I may have this pair finished before the end of 2016!!  My plans for New Years Eve are to stay home, probably eat pizza and knit or cross stitch. I'll be up at midnight because I'm a night owl, not because I need to see the ball drop.  As for the New Year I will usher it in with more knitting, cross stitch and quilting. My philosophy is that you should do the things you love on the first day of the year to set the tone for the next 365 days!!

Tomorrow I'll have a little recap of what I've accomplished this year. I never think I get much done but reviewing my blog showed I was more productive than I thought. I haven't been too conscientious in posting the last couple of months but I have been working on stuff. I've considered not updating the blog and moving solely to Instagram, but looking back over 2016 shows me why a blog is a good thing. It is a pictorial diary of what is going on in my life. It certainly isn't the lifestyles of the rich and famous (remember that show with Robin Leach? Whatever happened to Robin Leach?)... but I am certainly happy with the life I have!

I'm going to link up with Patchwork Times to see what others are knitting this week. So much yarn...not enough time!

happy knitting -
carol fun

A soggy Saturday of socks, and a shawl, and a sad sad song...

Hello -- can you tell I LOVE alliteration... soggy...Saturday...socks... shawl...sad...song... I'm don't believe that all those things  would actually have any connection other than on this blog... oh well...here goes...

First off on this soggy Saturday,  I'm down to the toe of my first Frankensock from the Opal Advent Calendar...

I like this one but in the scheme of the Frankensocks I've knit I think this one is rather subdued... pink, lavender, sage and blue... not a bit of yellow and only  a couple of specks of orange. Not my usual picks but then I hoped that the Advent Calendar would give me new color combos, so it is successful on that point. I am going to make the second sock using these same skeins... by my calculations I've used a bit of 7 different little mini skeins in this sock.

And here are the delightful little bundles that have popped out of the calendar since I last posted...

This soggy Saturday doesn't make for good lighting but these little guys are a nice bright bunch... except for the black/gray/white one bottom row second from the left... he is definitely odd man out!  I see several pairs of brightly colored Frankensocks using these skein.

My ever changing strategy this week is to proceed with the second sock mate to the one currently on my needles and then start a new pair with lots of the bright stuff.

 Wednesday night my quilty lady friends got together to celebrate Christmas.  We exchange names each year and I was blessed to receive this magnificently exquisite shawl from Cathy... thank you SOOOOO much Cathy!!!

My photo does NOT do justice to this shawl... it is knit with yarn from Caterpillar Green Yarns which you can see here. The pattern is called Playground Shawl... it is free and you can see it here.   The magic of this shawl is that this was knit from ONE skein of yarn that was dyed to have the rainbow sections separated by the gray sections... there are NO joins or loose ends to weave in for the entire shawl except for at the beginning and the end... think about that for a minute?  Isn't this genius???

Here is how it looks when you wear it...



I tried to take a selfie of me wearing it, but between juggling the camera when it almost fell into the toilet and temporarily blinding myself, this is  the best pic I could get...

and yes, the bathroom mirror definitely needs to be wiped down... housekeeping isn't one of my talents, no one on their death bed every said "I wish I'd spent more time in the office" or "I wish I had cleaned more bathrooms."  NEVER been said!!!

As for the sad song...have you ever heard the song "Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg?  It is played on the oldies station locally that does all Christmas music this time of year. Now other than it mentions Christmas eve in the first line I'm not sure why it is considered a Christmas selection. I love the lyrics and the melody but this song ALWAYS makes me cry... last night it came on the radio and I should have turned it off after the first 8 bars... but I didn't... and I cried. I don't know why... I'm certainly not pining for any lost love but there is something just so evocative about this song that is always touches me. The chorus includes the line "we drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to now"... you can tie up a lot of memories in that line.

So on that note I'll sign off... I'm happy all the rain today isn't snow... and I hope you are warm where you are.

happy knitting-
carol fun

The saga of socks saunters on...

Another crazy week... but then aren't they all a bit off... running around...cold weather has descended...working on too many projects at one time... par for the course. I have dutifully opened every door for this week on my Advent calendar... right to left Day 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9...

I'm very fond of Days 4 and 6... Days 5 and 7 are kinda similar as are the greens in Days 8 and 9... but I have seen some other skeins on Instagram that make my heart go pitty pat and I hope they are still lurking in my calendar.

I haven't been knitting as much as I thought I would and the new little hanks backed up a it but that was a good thing. It let me pick and choose more what I wanted to knit. This is where I am at the moment...

The sock on the left is about ready for a heel... gonna do that in the same charcoal gray I did the cuffs. And the sock on the right is showing off my favorite skein so far...Day 4... the only one to have any yellow in it!!!

I've been looking everyday at the Instagram board #opaladventcalendar which you can see here... and there are lots of pretties. Instead of knitting a bit of each skein when it pops out of the cube some people are knitting the whole skein before moving onto a new one and I'm liking how that looks...

these socks from oldmaidenaunt...

and these from coopknits which use a substantial chunk of  a skein before moving on...




I think when I finish this first pair I'm going to make a pair using more of the skein... Looks like it takes about 2 1/2 skeins to do a sock. Since several of mine will be a little light by then I'm thinking 3 should do a sock and I can pick 3 that sort of coordinate.

Have you noticed that my plan for these socks changes every week?  The plan is there is no plan that way I can be as fickle as I want!!

Well my mood this morning was a gray as the sky but things have brightened up. Last night my laptop decided it no longer wished to converse with the internet in my home. Other devices were happy to chit chat but not my laptop...ugh... I tried everything I knew ...which wasn't much ... and then took it to Best Buy to their Geek Squad. I had resigned myself to probably paying at least $100 to get it fixed. I hoped it wouldn't be more than that. The computer is old but it works and I like it... and it is Christmas and I don't want to have to buy a new laptop for me at the moment.

When I got to Best Buy they asked if I had an appointment... I didn't know you could make one, but no problem they'd look at my laptop in a few minutes after they took care of the older couple in front of me who did have an appointment. They got to me in about 10 minutes and I explained that my laptop wasn't speaking to the internet in my home.

The tech, Eli, told me that they were getting a lot of this problem...an issue with Microsoft... and well, they didn't have a definitive fix for it... ugh again... but he'd try a few things and see what he could do. So he did and on the 3rd or 4th try he coaxed my laptop to engage in a conversation with the internet... THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU ... and what did this little exchange cost me??? NOTHING... absolutely NOTHING... the first 20 minute consult was FREE... I was stunned. Needless to say I will be giving Best Buy and Eli at the Waterstone Plaza in Cincinnati OH and glowing review. He never made me feel stupid ... which has happened before ... and he was personable and funny. I will definitely be returning for any other computer issues I have in the future...and you know they will occur. I'm hoping this doesn't happen to my son's laptop, but if it does we will be off to Best Buy lickety split.

So I have a busy weekend planned to go along with the busy week... tomorrow I'm doing lunch with my boys at one of our favorite restaurants in the trendy Over the Rhine neighborhood of downtown Cincinnati.. and then we have tickets to go see Brickmas which is a Christmas display of Lego stuff. My boys are both big Lego fans and if I had a penny for every Lego brick I've stepped on in my life I'd be a very rich woman...LOL!!  Sunday I'm hoping to have my handyman Dan hang some vertical blinds in my son's room and take care of a couple of other projects. My Christmas shopping is pretty much under control... still need some gift cards but I know what I'm getting.

Hope you holiday preparations are coming along well... but for now I'm back to do a little knitting...

happy stitching and knitting -
carol fun

The saga of socks

Okay, so where have I been??? Have I been sick? On vacation?? Kidnapped by aliens???

None of the above... no excuse... I just haven't been posting... sorry...

With Thanksgiving behind me I've moved into full Christmas mode. I have my tree up... my outside lights on... bought a new 7.5 ft inflatable snowman for the side yard (I'll see if I can take a pic of him in the dark... his body is kaleidoscopic...oooooohhhh... pretty) ... and the majority of my inside decorating is complete.  A lot of the old stuff and a few new things... I'll show the new things in a day or two.

But the event I was waiting for with bated breath was the opening of the first door of my Opal Advent Calendar....

I had pre knit two cuffs (they are perched on the top of the box) to start some Frankensocks... some nice charcoal gray Fabel that I thought would be a good neutral... at the stroke of midnight on Thursday December 1 (and I'm not kidding it was 12:00) I opened door number 1... and I must be truthful... I was a bit disappointed. Oh it is a cute little 15 gram skein but my first door skein was brown... not on my list of favorite colors... oh it has its place in the world but in my world it is mostly banished to a small dark corner in the basement furnace room...sigh...I had feelings similar to those I had as a kid when I opened a beautifully wrapped present to find it contained... underwear...ugh!!!

But I persevered and started knitting the brown skein... it was really really brown...okay.. it is a nice mottled yarn but it doesn't make my heart sing. I could see that the interior of the skein had a section of black and white which was intriguing. I LOVE those faux fair isle patterns Opal is so good at, and I continued and this is how that section knitted up...

Okay, it is kinda handsome but it isn't what I wanted... insert stompy foot, frowny face, holding my breath temper tantrum behavior... oh I'm so adult...

Onto Day 2...now this is what I'm longing for ... I love this little pink/turquoise/blue/purple skein... a HAPPY skein of yarn...

And Day 3 has dawned colorful too... purple... I hardly ever buy yarn that is purple but I like it...

So what happened to the Day 1 yarn?  I unravelled it and put it in time out... I was going to show a pic but my son remarked that it now looks like something Big Dude left in the litter box... I'll leave you with that mental image and move on...


So 2 out of 3 days were happy little skeins of yarn... that's a pretty good percentage. I've been looking at what others have gotten in their Opal Advent Calendars on Instagram... you can check them out here... and here.... it turns out that the calendars don't have the same yarn in each day so I'm assuming that the pretties I'm seeing that others have found will show up in my calendar later in the month... I hope so!!!

The plan I started with was I was going to knit 5 rounds from each skein alternating from one sock to another. One sock would be the odd days and the other sock the even day... but 5 rounds isn't enough to show the pattern well... so I changed the plan to 10 rounds... and that wasn't enough for me either... so right now the plan is to knit till the skein tells me to stop... sensible, dontcha think??? ( Remember I am happy happy happy in my delusional little bubble fueled by yarn fumes and the click of my needles... my happy place...LOL!)

I'm a day late but I'll be linking up with Patchwork Times knitting post On the Needles... fun stuff over there too...

And before I forget...which I did... when I'm not posting here I sometimes do post on Instagram... you can click on this link anytime and see what I'm up to... if I got around to posting there... and I'm not always good about that either. I'm carolfun53 on Instagram if you want to follow me. Instagram is my new Pinterest... I can spend hours there looking at stuff... and when I find cool stuff I pin it to my boards on Pinterest which makes this activity a continuous loop of time wasting... I'm really really good at time wasting... almost as good as I am at starting new projects... God has given me many talents... LOL!!!

Hope you have a nice weekend ahead... I'm off to do some grocery shopping for dinner tomorrow. The weather has turned truly cold... may see some snow flurries next week... ugh... already planning my Spring gardening... my way of denying winter exists... another delusional little world I visit...

happy knitting -
carol fun

Lots of sockiness... I know it is a made up word... but I like it...

So we just finished out Socktober, I mean October and that gave me lots of knitting time for socks... although that is pretty true of every month... but lets not dwell on that, since I LOVE LOVE LOVE to knit socks!!   Let's begin a show of sockiness  with a finished pair of socks...

another pair of Frankensocks which I tried to bend toward the purple range.  Lots of bits and bobs of Opal and Regia and assorted other sock yarns that I have no ball band for. There is also some sparkly bits  which you can see if you make the picture bigger. I don't know why I bought that sparkly skein and I don't think I want a pair of  entirely sparkly socks but little pieces of it here and there are a nice distraction...oooooohhhh something shiny!!!

And then there are the unfinished socks....I know I said that from now on I was only going to do Frankensocks... but it was a lie... I really like doing the Frankensocks but somehow I needed a change... a palate cleanser... so I cast on this sock...

It is a bit hard to see the pattern but it is there... it is called Sunday Swing and it is a free pattern which you can see here.  The yarn is Regia Colormania and it has been in my stash for a while. I've got 2 other colorways too.

Here's another picture where it is on my leg  and you can see how the pattern swings back and forth...

I've knit this pattern before and it is easy... one patterned row you have to count ... one knit row you don't have to count... and back and forth, back and forth.  I know you are surprised.... it isn't a plain vanilla sock... I'm surprised too!  

And then there is more sockiness with this sock that just jumped onto a pair of empty needles... honestly... it wasn't my fault... it was Socktober magic...

I was searching cruising wasting time on Ravelry and saw this BE-YOOOO-TI- FUL yarn. Zitron Trekking XL 415.  A wonderful wash of color that reminds me of a tub of rainbow sherbet... lots of things remind me of food...do you have this problem too ??  Anyway as I was wiping the drool off my laptop it hit me that "YOU OWN THIS YARN CAROL"... OMG... I DO!!!  It has been maturing in a plastic bin in the basement for quite a while, so I freed it and in appreciation it jumped onto the empty pair of 2.75mm circular needles that were minding their own business next to my comfy chair. In my world sock yarn does have a life of its own... it is a crazy little world but they know me there and all is good...LOL

Now these are plain vanilla socks but really not so plain... I love how the colors are pooling but there is also a clear delineation of 2 different color swaths... above is one side of the sock...

and here is the other side... isn't that cool??? Kinda psychedelic. The colors changes are definitely keeping my interest and this is a great car knitting sock... a sock that will primarily be knit while I'm waiting in the car for my son, or in a drive through window line or wherever I find myself with time to kill and I'm stuck in the car.   It is a good thing that I knit because otherwise I'd probably hurt people. I think I show remarkable restraint at times, as I am armed with  sharp pointy things and I don't poke people's eyes out... although I do have those thoughts??? Its not bad unless I act upon it .... right???

So Socktober was a productive... overall I finished 2 pairs of socks and started 2 more pairs... my needles are never empty.

Hope you have a nice weekend ahead... the unseasonably warm weather has given way to seasonably cooler temperatures so I'm wearing long pants and  socks and I'm quite comfy and happy!

happy knitting -
carol fun

It is 90 degrees, so I knit...

It has been a very hot summer here... except for yesterday...and today...which have been lovely, mid 70 degree temperatures... it won't last... sigh!  And when it is 90 degrees of course one's thoughts turn to knitting wool socks, right?? Oh, they don't? Well that's where my little pea brain has taken me and I've been quite productive in the sock arena.

First, this pair...

these were created with a Frankensock kit from the etsy shop  havirland which you can see here.  As you know I'm obsessed with scrappy Frankensocks and while I have  some .... plenty... enough yarn to stuff a boxcar... I wanted to play with colors I wouldn't normally choose... so I bought one of the kits from havirland. The yarn is lovely, very squishy ... this was a fun diversion.

But there is still that boxcar of yarn that is mine that needs to be knitted. So I collected some Opal and Regia and Fabel and who know what other brands and knitted this sock...

I'm very happy with this sock... to my mind,  it has the look of an old utility quilt, very scrappy.  I particularly like the Opal yarns with the little specks of color... I have decided that they are polka dots and you know how I LOVE polka dots!  Now the next logical step is that I should be knitting the mate to this sock, but logic has never been my strong suit, so instead I'm working in this sock...

I decided I wanted to knit something with a Fall feel so again I perused my stash and picked bits and bobs of yarns that looked Fall-ish to me. Now if it were only possible to influence the weather and have it stay cool enough to actually wear wool socks that would be great... alas I have no such influence... but I will continue to knit!

Lots of running to do today... yesterday I squeezed in a trip to the local garden nursery outlet and got a tree... well I didn't actually take it home but I picked it out and my sons are giving it to me as a birthday present. I selected a Crimson Maple ... the leaves are a purply red all summer and then it it suppose to be a golden color in the Fall. I already have a purply red flowering plum in my yard and I like the color  against the yellow brick of my house.  Can't wait to get it planted in a week or two.

And while I was running around I somehow lost my FitBit Zip... insert frown-y face... it is a little pedometer that clips to your waistband and somehow it got unclipped. I didn't realize it was missing until after I had come inside from watering the plants. Now I may have lost it in my yard but a brief search in the dark with flashlight did not turn up the black Zip... I'll search again tomorrow. I may have lost it elsewhere... the last time I remember looking at it was mid-afternoon. I figure if I did lose it in the yard , with my luck, it will be run over by the lawnmower... so I ordered a new one... in neon lime green... hopefully I won't lose this one but if I do it should be easier to locate.

happy knitting -
carol fun

Dueling socks...

Well this week I have dueling socks on my needles!  My usual pace has me knitting one sock a week but somehow this week I have two socks going and... neither one is done.  Oh well... it has been fun knitting.

The sock on the left is a Frankensock using scraps of Opal yarn... the cuff, heel and toe will be a gray yarn of undetermined origin that I found in my stash.

Think I have enough scraps? Yeah me too!  I wound little 5 gram balls from a big bin of leftover yarn I have. I weigh them on one of those little kitchen scales you can weigh food on... if you are into that sort of thing...but I'm not. Funny aside, my older son who is a prosecuting attorney saw the little scale and asked "why do you have a drug scale?"... obviously his experience with this device is very different from mine.

And while I distinctly remember telling my friend that since I've discovered Frankensocks and ragrug socks I would never knit a pair of socks from just one skein of yarn, this skein snuck into my house and my heart!

This is Opal Hunderwassers in the colorway 2104...oh how I LOVE this skein! (I got it off of ebay and I did just google it and there are few skeins still out there in the internet.)  Varying widths of stripes ... big and little bands of faux Fair Isle... a touch of yellow!  However, while this sock is primarily from one skein I did do some alterations. The creamy white band is much shorter than the skein had it... a bit too much white for me so I broke the yarn and started back with that cute little red faux Fair Isle band. And when I got down to the heel I decided to use a solid creamy white... some older Paton Kroy.  This is very enjoyable knitting... totally mindless.  I think this sock yarn has a definite Frankensock vibe too!  Makes me happy happy happy!

Do you have plans for the holiday weekend?  I have an airport drop off to do and plan to go to Taste of Cincinnati one day and then nothing definite...I'm sure some knitting and cross stitch and sewing will find its way into the weekend... and if the weather cooperates some of it will be done sitting on the front porch...life is good!

happy knitting-
carol fun

I'm coughing so I still must be alive...

So about 2 weeks ago I was introduced to some nasty little virus that has laid me low. First the aches, then the chills, the stuffy head, and the coup de grace...the cough...I have NEVER coughed so long and so hard in my life. If it was physically possible to cough up a lung mine would be sitting next to me in my easy chair. I went to an urgent care clinic which was a depressing visit, as I was told that since it is a virus, antibiotics wouldn't help...and oh that cough may last SIX WEEKS!!!! I am at 2 weeks now...it is a little better but it is still there. Today is the first day I've felt that I could go without the over the counter medication...so far so good...but the cough is still here.

Now the constant coughing hasn't lent itself to extreme productivity  in the crafty realm, but I did get some knitting done...mindless sock knitting...oh how I LOVE you...you've kept me sane. First I finished off my Opal Frankensocks...as I remember there are at least 5 or 6 different skeins of Opal in this pair.

The toes and heels are a yellow ombre Austermann and I just got lucky that the colors repeated in the same fashion on both socks...no adjustments were made by me as I was not capable of that kind of higher level thinking. I think they are nice happy Easter socks which is a tradition from my childhood that I hold near and dear.

My sainted Grandma always gave me socks for Easter...the kind with the frilly lace around the ankle or pretty contrasting colors...very feminine and they made me feel wonderful. Also to add to the gift she would put a silver dollar... a real silver dollar in the toe... I don't know why she did it but I saved them and they are in a safety deposit box. I suppose it was her way of spoiling me and I hope to be able to do the same for my future grandchildren. Do you have any Easter traditions to spoil grandchildren with? I'm stockpiling ideas!

Also I started another pair of the two alternating yarns socks. These are DROPS Fabel 677 and 910... you can see them here.

I don't think I'll ever tire of this vanilla sock knitting variation. You have NO idea what the sock is going to look like and no two socks are going to be the same. These greens and blues with a touch of beige  are lovely together.  I have a ton of this yarn in my stash and can't wait to try out other combinations.

So are you prepped and ready for Easter?  We are doing dinner mid-afternoon at my son and daughter-in-law's home... a mere two blocks from my house. Now the weather is lovely and I could walk but I'm bringing several dishes and don't want to stumble on my way over so I'll drive. Can't wait to make some deviled eggs and have the opportunity to use my Fiestaware egg plate... there aren't enough occasions to use it to suit me...LOL!  I did all my grocery shopping yesterday evening and hopefully I haven't forgotten anything so I won't have to deal with the crowds. I went past the Honeybaked Ham store today and the traffic trying to get in and out of the parking lot made me happy that I had been there yesterday. Oh I'm so smart...every once in a while...LOL!

Well I'm going to enjoy the sunny afternoon, still a bit chilly but temps are going back up tomorrow. Maybe I'll knit a bit or cross stitch or take a little nap...

I'm sure the master can give me tips on how to do it right!

happy stitching and knitting -
carol fun

Off the needles...

I'm sitting here waiting for the snow to commence... we are suppose to get a couple of inches but so far I've only seen a flake or two. Hey if they are wrong it won't make me unhappy. I don't like driving it it and I'm too old to go sledding, so no snow would be fine.

Now I have been knitting and I have 2 pairs of socks finished... both of these pairs use the same recipe of alternating 2 patterning yarns every row. I LOVE how you have no idea what you are going to get. LOL...this is as dangerous as I get in life... the excitement of unexpected yarn patterning...oh I'm such a thrill seeker! Woo - hoo!

All the yarns used in these pairs comes from Nordic Mart... you can check them out here.  Great yarns, great prices. The first pair used Drops Fabel 340 (turquoise) and  Pix 108 Techno by Universal  and the heels are Drops Fabel 109 (cerise).

This pair used Drops Fabel 330 (purple) and Pix 106 Succulent by Universal  and the heels are Drops Fabel 112 (apple green).

I have plenty of of the Pix yarns left over and I plan on knitting them with a different solid/tonal yarn and they will look completely different. I really enjoy knitting just plain stockinette socks... mindless ...soothing...meditative... and totally doable when you are talking or watching TV. I was always a big fan of self-patterning yarns and knitting with 2 at a time has opened up a whole new world of possibilities. No two socks will ever be alike... I LOVE that!

So I'm off to paw through my stash and see what other combinations I can come up with.

happy knitting... stay warm!

carol fun

One holiday down...one to go...

Hello... did you have a nice Thanksgiving? I certainly did. We celebrated at my son's and daughter-in-law's home ...their first Thanksgiving as a married couple...and there was lots and lots of good food and great company. We ate a 1pm and I spend the rest of the day in a food coma...it is nice to slow down that way every once in a while. I'm usually go go going all the time. Yesterday evening I just sat and read...didn't knit or cross stitch or anything crafty...and it was a lovely break from my routine.

And now we all run headlong into Christmas. I have family members who are big Black Friday shoppers, and others like me who will try to do as much of their shopping as they can online. Now I do sometimes wish that there was more time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I like the way the Canadians do it... Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October...that gives you lots more time to do the big holiday meal all over again at Christmas. But then a family member who wondered... how do people in countries that don't celebrate Thanksgiving when we do know when to start Black Friday shopping? (This member is in the big Black Friday shopping contingency if you didn't guess). I don't know what they do but somehow everyone seems to shop for Christmas. Today I am planning to avoid all the big retail stuff...lunch with a friend...maybe pop into my favorite quilt store...they have dollar fat quarters today...but that will be all the retail for me.

This last week did see me finishing another pair of my version of rag rug socks...

These are Drops Fabel 901 and 151. I used a solid plum for the heels and I was going to do the toes in the plum too but I just got swept up in those wonderful little stripes and couldn't stop myself...LOL

And since my needles were empty for a nanosecond I started another pair of ragrug socks...these are looking quite Spring-y...

The yellow is a ombre Austermann  that has been in my stash for a while, and the multi color skein is Red Heart Heart & Sole in the Jellybeans colorway...I picked it up at Hobby Lobby. I have some other knitting I'm working on too but it is super secret Christmas knitting so no pictures right now.

Hope that you are having a nice weekend...I'm going to chill as much as possible.

happy knitting-
carol fun

It was fun... and the TV shows were good too...

So last Friday I shared my latest obsession...knitting socks using 2 skeins of self striping yarn, alternating with each round... another finished sock!

This sock uses Drops Fabel 901 and 151... I love how the greens meld together and how you get little bitty stripes. I used Drops 104 for the heels. I was going to do the toes with that plum-y yarn too but I was so carried away by the striping I just couldn't stop myself... LOL...it is a good thing that this vice is legal!

Here is a pick of Helene's sock doing the two stripe ragrug method...

Similar yet different... I have to say knitting with the two yarns has kept me very focused... I didn't have a thought about starting a new combination and happily cast on the second sock. I took what was left of the skeins from the first sock and wound each into a ball so the yarn would knit off in the opposite order of the first sock. I figure this ensures I have non-matching socks...fraternal twins not identical.

I'm already down to the heel on the second sock... with any good TV watching this weekend I'll have this one done in no time.

And as for the TV shows on Sunday night overall very enjoyable. Was surprised at the winner of the Great British Baking Show... I thought for sure Kimberly would win but Frances was wonderful too. I'm sad that is was the last episode of the season for Home Fires...I really LOVE this one. I've read there will be a second season which is great since I need to find out what happens all the wonderful women in this show.  I  purchased the book this series is based on...Home Fires:The Story of the Women's Institute in the Second World War. Only read a couple of pages so far. As for Indian Summers there is one more episode this Sunday. I liked this one when it started but as it has progressed I'm not as enamoured with it. The costumes and locations are wonderful but I'm not fond of a lot of the characters. I checked the guide and this Sunday they are re -running Downton Abbey Season 5.  Definitely good sock knitting TV.

Hope you have a great weekend... I don't have anything planned except for dinner on Sunday. It is a bit chilly and I'm thinking chili and cornbread would be excellent.

happy knitting...
carol fun

This is FUN..... knit socks and watch TV...

A couple of weeks ago I saw this sock on Instagram...

and I instantly LOVED it... scrappy and stripey... so wonderful. It was knit by Helene Dehmer @happygoknitty. She calls them ragrug socks and you can see a lot of them here on Instagram. Helene has done several color version of this sock which sent me scurrying to Nordicmart to purchase a couple ... several ... A WHOLE LOT of Drops Fabel sock yarn which you can see here.

I cast on a new sock as soon as it arrived and started knitting them as she had alternating the rows every two rounds but no matter what I tried I got a jog in the stripes that I did not like. I watch a bunch of videos on youtube and tried different techniques and while a couple were good I still wasn't happy so I decided to do them my way... I alternate yarn after every round.

My version of ragrug socks... skinny ragrug socks!

I used Drops Fabel 905 and 672. By changing yarns every round I've pretty much eliminated the jog issue...here is the side where I changed yarns.

It doesn't show much in the picture but IRL I do have a slight bit of a bump where I changed yarns... I pulled it too tight and I'm paying attention on this pair to eliminate that bump.

This sock uses Drops Fabel 151 and 901 and I LOVE how it is turning out too. By alternating the yarns every row I'm getting swathes of stripes which remind me of a piece of fabric... it is like I sewed pieces of different striped fabrics together... scrappy scrappy scrappy ... and I LOVE scrappy!

These socks are so much FUN...anymore I just like to knit plain vanilla stockinette socks so the yarn has to do the heavy lifting. I like yarns that stripe and sometimes pool like Blue Moon Socks That Rock and I like self striping yarns but combining 2 self striping yarns is the so addicting. You have no idea what it is going to look like and that keeps you knitting row after row after row after row. I think is it like the Stack N Whack/One Block Wonder/Four Patch Posey of the knitting world. You don't know what you are going to get when you start a Stack N Whack/One Block Wonder/Four Patch Posey and that is what makes them exciting. Hey, it is my idea of living dangerously...LOL... that and a nightly bowl of ice cream!

So I am happily knitting away and trying to keep myself from starting a new pair so I can see how they stripe up. This is the perfect project for my Sunday night PBS marathon TV watching. Have you checked it out? I'm a big fan of the British dramas... Mr. Selfridge...Downton Abbey...love them!  On Sunday nights I park my butt in my chair from 7 till 11pm... first The Great British Bake Show... it is a reality competition cooking show but totally unlike the American versions...no bad behavior...the contestants seem to actually like each other and the stuff they bake looks so good. I time my nightly bowl of ice cream to coincide with their showstopper reveal. Then I'm into Home Fires...set in a little town in Britian at the start of WWII...it all revolves around the women of the town...love the actress Samantha Bond who plays Mrs. Barden (she is also in Downton Abbey too).  After that is Indian Summers which takes place in India at the time the country was striving for home rule. It follows the lives of a group of  British ex-pats and an Indian family. Lots of intrigue. Then I move onto The Guilty, a crime drama which moves back and forth between the disappearance of a small boy five years ago and now when his body is discovered but no one has been charged with the crime.  I enjoy all of these shows except for the fact that there are no commercials... as a woman of a certain age I need regular bathroom breaks.

Anyway I have plenty of knitting and good tv watching planned for tomorrow. Too bad there is almost nothing I watch during the week...with baseball over  I watch a show or two on PBS (Antiques Roadshow) or American Pickers on the History Channel and I watch the local news...not much else. Hope you are having a great weekend. It got cold here...upper 50's for the weekend... we had mid-70's last week... I'm wearing warm socks today.

happy knitting-
carol fun

Happy Socktoberfest....

which is like Oktoberfest but with sock yarn instead of beer!  So  2 weeks ago I showed socks I wanted to make and links to Nordic Mart for Fabel yarn.  I know one or two of you checked them out and ordered yarn... so did I...and I waited and waited and waited and finally sent them an email asking for information on the whereabouts of my order. This is out of character for them. I've ordered numerous times and I always get my order in about 3 days - California to Ohio- I think that is very good delivery. So when I contacted them I said they had sent it out the day before and I should be receiving it Thursday...which I did. No explanation if stuff was back ordered or if the order got lost in the shuffle... I'm thinking the latter. Oh well, it came yesterday...

Oh they look so squished...I released them and arranged them in numeric order to satisfy the OCD in me!

Now if you look back at my post of 2 weeks ago - you can click here - there were 3 pairs of socks I'd found on Instagram. I was able to determine which yarns they were knit with... the blue pair is Fabel 677 and 911... I got those yarns... the green pair is Fabel 151 and 901...got those... and the black orange pair is Fable 905 and 672...of course I got that too! I also put together a couple of combos of my own using some yarn I already had...what a concept...LOL

While I was waiting for my yarn delivery I tried out the "ragrug" sock idea of knitting alternate rounds - 2 rows each - of two different sock yarns. I picked a solid gray Fabel and some leftover Regia, one of the recent Arne & Carlos ones that are self -striping Fair Isle patterns.

Here is what I got...I like this side...

but I'm not as keen on this side...

It is hard to get jogless stripes when you are only doing 2 rows... I used a technique I found on this YouTube video by Knit Darling, you can see it here where you twist the yarns and slip the first stitch of the second row. I may look better after I wash it . I also found these ideas about jogless stripes on Craftsy - you can see it here - and I'm going to try them too. I'm thinking if you use two more similar yarns the jogs will be less noticeable. I looked on IG and left a question on happygoknitty's pictures to ask how she handles the jogs but haven't heard back yet.

Soooooo I have quite a bit of yarn here to play with... and embarrassment of riches...now to decided which yarns to play with first...so hard...LOL...what a great predicament to be in!

Hope you have a good weekend planned...turning noticeably colder tomorrow...frost warning for Saturday night and a freeze warning for Sunday... that will probably be the end of my coleus but that's okay. Need to get my daffodil bulbs in the ground soon.

happy knitting-
carol fun

A New Obsession...need more yarn...

Okay to be perfectly honest I don't need more yarn... I WANT more yarn... so I can make more socks like these... well sort of like these...read on...

The pattern is called Dorothy's Slip Stitch Spiral Knit Socks and you can see the pattern here on Ravelry. The concept is you use 2 different self-striping yarns and alternate every other row, doing slip stitches on one row, and just knit the other row. I'd say more but I think I would be giving the pattern away and while it is quite simple she is selling it and I don't want to step on anyone's toes... particularly where pretty socks are concerned...LOL! While the pattern has you do it on double points (which I detest) I did it Magic Loop and had no problems.

I used two Drops Fabel yarns I had in my stash... 903 and 911... now these two skeins were in a little bag together which means I purchased them with something in particular in mind... but I can't for the life of me figure out what it was...so I used them for socks instead. Definitely put them to good use! Here is a close up of the slip stitch pattern.

As you can see I finished the first sock and dutifully started the second sock but was distracted by another idea and another color combo. As I was knitting the second sock I was getting fed up with the slip stitch row...it isn't hard... you have to count to 3 and I can do that without taking my socks off but it requires some attention. I don't knit socks to be attentive... I knit socks to veg out which is why anymore all I knit are plain vanilla stockinette socks.

Soooooo... unable to focus any longer I cast on this pair...

I alternated yarns every row but didn't do the slip stitch and I really LOVE how these look. Now both of these yarns are more tonal than stripey... the turquoise is Drops Fabel 340 and the orange is Regia Color 120... both of which were in my stash...yippee!! Free socks!! (Again we are not going to discuss the fallacy of my logic we are just going to accept and quietly tsk tsk tsk to ourselves...right??? Right-o!) I LOVE how this makes scrappy looking socks with no tying of yarn together and no ends to weave in. And I like how you don't know what it is going to look like till you knit it...oooohhh... my idea of living dangerously! LOL

So being totally taken with this new obsession I went on the Internet to see what other examples of these kinds of socks I could find and stumbled upon these...

and these...

and these...

And these 3 pairs of socks really entranced me. Helene used 2 different self striping yarns all Drops Fabel ones and knit 2 rows with each yarn. Such delicious scrappiness!! I found these on Instagram from Helene's happygoknitty name and you can check her out here. So after drooling over her combinations I went Nordic Mart who've I ordered from before and well, you know where this is going... I ordered more yarn because I NEED/WANT more yarn. Hey, at least I'm not drinking or gambling my retirement away, right??? You can check out Drops Fabel yarns here... very reasonably priced around $3.00 a skein and the shipping is reasonable too...$5.50. I'll have a lovely package of squishy goodness hitting my front porch next week and in the meantime I could finish that first pair, or cast on the mate for the second pair, or I could start an entirely new pair with either this combo...

which reminds me of a lovely Fall day... or this combo...

which talks of sunshine and blue skies. (Yes the yarn does talk, you just have to be very very quiet and you can hear it.)

So what do you think I'm going to do next? Oh I got two more pairs of circular needles today at lunch...life is very very good!

Check out what others are knitting over at Patchwork Times On the Needles linkup today...just click here.

happy knitting!
carol fun