Socks, socks and more socks

Not much to show this week. I've been trying to finish up(start) all of my sock swap projects that are on the go right now. So far I'm pushing along pretty good, and even though I'm finishing up several pairs of socks I feel like my WIPs are feeling neglected. Not too much longer, then I can focus on Christmas WIPs again. I just realized the other day that Christmas is just like 3 months away, time is seriously flying.

I finished my Hogwarts Sock Swap socks this week, but no pics until I get them sent off and Emma gets her package next week. I also cast on my Monkey Swap Socks, these are flying along. This is my first time knitting this pattern, and so far the socks are going pretty good. I just made it to the first heel flap and am hoping that I can finish up the first sock either tonight or tomorrow. This is also my first time using Lorna's Laces and I am so in love.

I'm off to clean a hamster cage, my house and do some more sock knitting. Happy Knitting

And then there were two

I finished my Baudelaire socks last night. I think they turned out great...the measurements are right on, the pattern shows up great, and the color of the yarn works really well with the pattern. All in all a successful knit.

Pattern: Baudelaire by Cookie A

Yarn: My Own Hand Dyed

Needle: US 2 - Brittany Birch 5"

We went apple and strawberry picking this weekend, what a fun family outing that was. We picked 22lbs of apples and 2lbs of strawberries. The strawberries were out of this world, I have never tasted anything as naturally sweet as those. And so far the apples have turned into 2 apple pies and I still have plenty of apples for applesauce.

I also got to stop by Micheals while we were out on Saturday and picked up this. It's a Knitpickers small project bag. I had been thinking about making myself one for my socks, but I couldn't beat the price and I had a coupon.(Can you guess what socks I'm work on now)

That's about it for this past week. I've been trying to be good and get all my sock swap socks all knitted up so that I can start sending out projects. So far I'm doing pretty good, and hopefully by the end of this week I'll have the mate to the above sock finished.

Bath Puffs

Pattern: Bath Puff by Priscilla Hewitt

Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream in Rose Twist and Summer Twist

Needle: I - hook

I stopped by the craft store this afternoon and picked up some cotton to make these. I saw the pattern on Ravelry and thought that they were so cute. So I cast on ( is that what you call it with crochet?) the first one (pink-for Angelina) and finished a couple hours later, and decided that I needed mine too(purple-for me). So a couple FO's in an evening isn't too bad.

Monday's WIPs

So it's Monday, the beginning of a brand new week. And I think I've done pretty good with staying on top of my projects this week. Although I did notice something different...I have different projects for different times of the day/week. To show progress I'm going to break it up into knitting times.

Weekdays

I finished the first sock (SITM Baudelaire socks) last week and cast on for the second one over the weekend. This seems to be my go to knitting during the day. It is easy to pick up and knit a round here or there, and it fits in my purse. I am very pleased with how these are turning out. For the pattern looking so complicated it is very easy to memorize, and knits up fairly quickly.

Weeknights

This is something that I hadn't planned on starting yet, but I needed a break from all the lace and socks. I present to you, pieces of the Unicorn. This is from the book Dream Toys by Claire Garland. I think I cast this on last Tuesday night and I finished knitting all the pieces last night, so all that's left is sewing it together and stuffing it. A very easy and cute knit, and I have something else from my Christmas list almost finished. *A note about the pattern: Since I substituted Cashsoft DK for Plymouth Dreambaby, I'm not sure how the yardage would normally work out. But using Dreambaby I only used 1 of the 4 balls needed. (Mine is still in a hundred pieces, so this is a pic from the book)

Weekends

This would be the time that I work on whatever lace project I am currently working on. At the moment that would be Hanami. I have finished the first 4 of the 7 repeats, so I'm staying on track with the KAL, and once you get into the basket weave groove they seem to go pretty quickly. I am very loving this stole, it's so beautiful and soft. Yummy!!(I would post a pic, but it looks the same as last week just alittle longer.)

That's it for my current WIPs, I'm very happy with the progress that I've made in the past week. Hopefully this week will be just as productive. On a final note...I picked up this book over the weekend. And so to bed by Lucinda Guy, this book has some of the cutest patterns for children. Have you seen Otto the Owl or Lula or the little Ballerina Bunny. I can't wait to make up some of these.

Otto the Owl

Lula

Ballerina Bunny

Have a great week!

P.S.

I have gifted out my extra Ravelry invite, only to check my e-mail and find that they sent me one more. So if anyone is interested in this invite just leave me a comment.
Have a great week!

Long Weekend

Well I've had a fairly productive weekend, spent working on a couple of projects. I cast on the Hanami stole and finished the first weeks set rows. It goes pretty quickly once you get the hang of the basket weave repeats. I decided to use Cashwool, which I discovered is alot thinner then the other lace weight yarns that I have used. Took some getting used to at first, felt like it was going to break all the time. But it's all good now.

Here is a picture of one of the other projects(not knitting related) that I worked on. I made myself some pretty stitch markers. I really enjoy making these, and they look so pretty laying against my knitting.

I also worked some more on MS3. Finished all of clue 6 and about half of clue 7. Hopefully I'll have it done sometime in the near future. Again no photos, not very photogenic at this point.

If at first you don't succeed...

Frog, frog again. That right there has been the story of the past week or so in my knitting life. The red yarn that I dyed up for my SITM socks, has been knitted and frogged about 5 times in the past week. For some reason red seems to be a hard color to find a pattern for. Every time I thought that I found the perfect pattern, I would get ready to start the heel and the pattern wouldn't be showing up. So I am now on my 6th try and these ones are going pretty good. I'm doing Baudelaire by Cookie A, I love knitting this pattern. It is complicated enough to keep it interesting, but yet with it being a 8 row repeat, it's pretty easy to memorize. Here's a pic of my progress as of last night, although I am a little further along now, just finished turning the heel. This pic makes the yarn look a little on the orange side, but I assure you it is red.

And then there shall be more frogging...MS3. Since Melanie posted the theme, I have had a love hate relationship with this project. Hence the reason that I haven't finished it yet. Well that and I made a mistake at the beginning of Clue 6 and didn't realise this until I had finished the clue. So I had to frog the whole clue to fix it, and because of this I lost my motivation to finish it. And then, last night I was laying in bed trying to get to sleep, and my brain just wouldn't stop running through all my WIPs. So I decided to get up, since I wasn't going to be able to sleep, and see if I could work on some of them. Out came MS3, I frogged, fixed the stupid mistake that I made, and am almost done Clue 6, again. I am thinking that I should be able to finish it this weekend and get it blocked out. Here's hoping.

Hanami KAL starts tomorrow, and I am very excited about this. Partly because the pattern is so beautiful, but mostly because it's for me. I ordered my yarn on Tuesday and it got here today. Can you guess where I ordered from? That's right the Loopy Ewe. Sherri outdoes herself with customer service. Yummy yarn, good prices, and quick ass service. It really doesn't get any better then that. Oh wait it does, she puts little goodies in with your order. How sweet is that. Here is my Lane Borgosesia Cashwool in Black for Hanami, a couple of yarn samples, and some little sock note cards.

And last but not least. I got my Ravelry invite today, but since Rachel gave me her extra one, I now have an extra one. So I will also gift mine away, as Rachel did for me. If you want to leave me a comment, I'll send you the link.

Have a great Labor Day weekend.