I could not stop spinning yesterday. I finished the second bobbin of this gorgeously rich cvm from cosy, and debated plying it right away. Instead, I set this bobbin aside to rest, and dug through my fiber stash.

This is 4 oz. of jacob wool from a farm just outside of town. I picked this up a few months ago at an LYS nearby. (I have the details somewhere in my fiber bin, but I would have to put down my coffee to look for it. Priorities.)

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I sat down to spin this, but oh_my_goodness. This fiber is incredibly soft, and however this was prepared (I’m still learning all my fiber preps/names) left a lot of air in the roving, which made this wool practically spin itself.

And here’s the progress I made on the second bobbin(!) last night:

It doesn’t look like I’m going to finish my KAL socks this month, and I think Boh might be okay with that.

I’m interpreting this to mean that he understands that sometimes one has to spend the day (or the weekend) at the spinning wheel.

Here’s my (our?) progress on the emerald city vanilla sock. I’m really getting the hang of the hiyahiya needle, and I’m finding that I can get more done (when I am not forgetting to knit because crazy things are happening on The Wire) because I do not have to look down to either pick up the other circ or rotate to the next dpn. Here’s a close up:

Happy weekend, all! I’m going to finish up this cup of coffee, pour another, and sit down at the wheel.

Exhibit A: 1 gallon pickling crock, acquired on ebay.

Exhibit B: Kraut-in-progress. (Note: this is not an exercise in instant gratification. While sauerkraut requires regular checking, skimming, etc., it takes several weeks to be ready to enjoy.) This is my first attempt at kraut, and I am so excited. I always LOVE kraut made by friends (including those pictured further on down the post), and can’t wait to have my very own supply.

To celebrate being home, Boh and I met up with friends (of the animal and human variety) for a lovely hike through a local state park.

We followed up the hike with ice cream, beer, homemade bread and fancy cheese. Not a bad Sunday afternoon, if you ask Boh. (I would agree.)

Finally time for a knitting update, don’t you think?

I must confess that I did not touch my on-hold socks while galavanting ‘cross the nation. Sorry, Boh. I knit a few more repeats this morning out of guilt, and the rows seemed to fly by. Have I mentioned yet that I love this yarn? And that I am actually enjoying reading the chart? I know I still have eleven days to finish the pair. In all of our recent travel and excitement, Boh seems to have forgotten about his supervisory role. We’ll see how long that lasts…

Mara continues to be blob-like. I’m into the second skein of beaverslide, and I’m going to keep increasing until I’m at the recommended width of 46″. I’m at about 40″ now. I’m okay with a shorter ruffle than the pattern calls for, so long as the wrap is a good size. This is turning out to be great TV knitting, if only I could keep my hands moving during on-screen suspense!

I managed to knit a few more inches on my plain vanilla toe-ups, due to some car maintenance that took a bit longer than it was supposed to. I’m just about ready to begin the heel, and I think I am going to attempt Wendy’s gusset heel. Despite a sort of annoying join on these needles, these socks seem to be moving right along. My current sock obsession may necessitate more short circular needle acquisition of the knitpicks variety…

I also managed to sit down at my wheel this weekend, and it felt good to get reacquainted with my current spinning project: Spunky Club corriedale/nylon blend in Soul Windows. I finished the first bobbin of what I hope will be a 3-ply sock yarn. I know the yarn is way out of focus in this picture, but I really like the way this shot turned out — my lazy kate is on top of a pile of cookbooks on top of a bookshelf.

Coming down the pike:

This lovely Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 sock yarn is soon to become Laura Chau’s Milkweed Shawl. The backwards loop group over on Ravelry is hosting a KAL that began on July 15, and once I make more progress on my on-hold socks, I intend to cast on and tackle my lace anxiety!

Here, I present my only yarn purchase of the trip — 8 balls of Queensland Cotolino, on sale at my old LYS. These are destined to become Buttercup – the modified version with slightly longer sleeves and a slimmer shape, I think.

It feels good to be blogging in “real time” again. Happy Monday, all!

I have a theory about WIPs and startitis, and it goes something like this: without a swift and ball winder, the knitter is obligated to think on new projects before readying the yarn and diving in. Winding yarn by hand is a repetitive, sometimes meditative, often simply time-consuming, and occasionally quite annoying process. When you know, deep in your subconscious self, that you need to wind multiple skeins of laceweight by hand (a la Whisper), you think long and hard about the project before you commit. With a yarn swift and ball winder, all of that pre-project thinking (at least at first) is replaced by a little voice that says “Squee! I get to turn that little handle and make yarn cakes! In the kitchen! No oven required!”

I speak from experience.

It all started innocently enough: I needed to select and wind my yarn for the July pattern for the Socks from the Toe Up KAL (the On-Hold socks). I chose Shibuiknits sock in ginger, which has been waiting patiently for a special pattern. I’m planning to cast on later today.

Then, I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have a vanilla sock on the needles to keep in my bag? These patterned socks are stunning, but they are not mindless, throw in a bag/take out the door/knit a few rows here and there socks. They are serious socks. Enter the Yarn Pirate sock in colorway Emerald City. (Isn’t it lovely?)

And then, I thought, socks can be tough to knit on while watching The Wire — I need something squooshier and fatter to work on in the evenings, something that is so simple and soothing that I can keep knitting while crazy things happen in Southeast Baltimore.

Thus, I wound up the Beaverslide merino lambswool in the snapdragon colorway (1 skein to start), which is destined to become Mara, a supersoft, brightly colored wrap. I’m already part of the way there:

I now fully understand how easy it is to somehow have a gazillion things on the needles. And I’m not complaining! I love my new toys. (For those interested, I broke down and got the new Paradise Fibers yarn swift after watching the video on their website. It didn’t hurt that they had a coupon for a discount on the swift AND a discount on the Royal ball winder. I may have acquired some more spinning fiber as well, but that was just to get me to the land of free shipping. You understand.)

No farm picture today — instead of coming right home and photographing the week’s haul, Boh and I went to see dear people and dog friends, eat farm food, drink homebrew and frolic in the yard — a lovely evening.

I will tell you that my share included: harukei turnips, beets, belgian endive, kale, chard, mint, parsley, garlic scapes, broccoli, sugar snap peas, and a few more strawberries…

Details:

Yarn: Yarn Pirate superwash BFL in the cupcake colorway
Needles: 2 circs, 2.5 mm
Toe: Judy’s Magic Cast on (it really is magic!)
Heel: slip stitch heel, as per pattern
Bind off: Russian Bind off
Size: Medium
Start: June 16th, 10 PM EST
Finish: June 30th, 10 AM EST (whew!)

For those of you who haven’t been following along, I knit these as part of the Socks from the Toe Up KAL on Ravelry. The KAL is a long one — knitting through Wendy Johnson’s book, one pair per month. There are great prizes, folks at all stages of sock knitting, and a super supportive knitting community. I’m learning new things, and I’m having a great time.

As you can see, sock supervising is exhausting work.

I picked 7 quarts of berries this morning. (Notice quart #7 — upper right, not in line with the rest. I learned today that a quart-sized yogurt container fits perfectly into the shallow outer rim of the cupholder in my CRV. Thus, I ate most of a quart on the drive home from the farm. Consider #7 to be exhibit A.)

The  farm is offering unlimited berry picking as part of the share now that the strawberry patch is super ripe. I prepped most of what I picked today to be stored: trimmed off the tops, lined them up on a baking tray, froze them enough that they won’t stick together, and put them in small freezer bags so that I can slowly defrost them as I see fit later on this summer and fall.

I may go back tomorrow. There is nothing like picking berries in the sunshine; today it felt like a reminder that everything will be okay.

Last night (after an incredible yoga class that has me feeling a really good all-body ache today) I broke out one of only a few mechanized pieces of kitchen equipment in my possession to make garlic scape-arugula-cilantro pesto. For dinner, I tossed it with pasta, and sprinkled on some walnuts and parmesan, which were tasty, but totally unnecessary. This pesto can stand on its own!

For lunch today, I made what P (of the farm) calls “pan toast” (aka toast in a cast iron skillet) and made 2 sandwiches of greens, pesto, and a slice of swiss cheese. Heavenly.

Because you can never eat too much pesto, for dinner tonight I made an omelet with eggs from P’s chickens, the last bit of the arugula I harvested, and of course, the pesto. I have a little bit left — enough for another meal or two that matches my kitchen!

You may be wondering about my knitting. Boh was quite worried about my progress on the lacy ribs socks, as is evident from the following photograph:

Good news! Boh can stop fretting (well, about the sock, anyway) because tonight I finished the first sock of the pair.

I could have done a few more leg repeats, but I was starting to worry about the tightness of the bind-off and the fit of the ribbing — this was a problem with my last (the first) pair of toe-up socks. I was so excited about using all of the yarn that I don’t think I increased enough or in the right places to get a perfect fit around the fullest part of my calf, and the bind-off on those socks is a bit tight. (Also, to be completely honest, there is a timeframe for this KAL. I started late, so I’m cutting it close!)

I did the Russian bind-off here, and it created a super-stretchy cuff, which is perfect. I’m quite pleased with how this sock has turned out, but more importantly, I love that this week, with this sock, I’ve learned a new cast-on, a new bind-off, and a new heel!

Tomorrow, I will cast on sock #2.

Now there’s a happy dog. (He may be happy about my completed sock, but it might also have something to do with the walk we took down to the creek so that we could put our toes/paws in the cool water.)

Bedtime for this rooster. Happy almost Friday!

Have you tried Judy’s Magic Cast On? The instructions in Wendy’s book (printed with Judy’s permission) make this purchase already worth the cost. Here I am, 4 repeats into my first-ever socks on two circulars!

I’m knitting the medium size to account for the stretchiness of the lace. I may also knit a slightly shorter foot to create a snug fit. I am absolutely thrilled with the way this colorway is knitting up, and I’m really enjoying knitting with 2 circulars! Victory all around, even if I am not able to finish these by the end of the month (and qualify for all of the incredible Socks From the Toe Up KAL June prizes). I don’t know why I didn’t try using 2 circulars earlier — it makes a lot of sense for a patterned sock — one needles has the pattern, and the other needle is the bottom of the sock, all in one place. Rather than become a hard-core advocate of one way to knit socks, I’m beginning to see the benefits of choosing needles that fit the pattern.  I may even have another go at Magic Loop (which I liked and have used for sleeves and things, but found a bit fiddly) — my Twisted Tweed Socks (rav link) were giving me some trouble around the heel, but maybe I need to try a different way of knitting those when I bring them out of hibernation.

Here’s one more close-up of my Lacy Ribs Sock:

Here’s hoping I can stick to my goal of equal amounts knitting/spinning and reading. I’ve put in some serious time on these socks in the last 12-14 hours, so as soon as I hit publish, I’m going to curl up with a book on the Gilded Age.

I think I mentioned something about farm shares and strawberries yesterday. Want to see this week’s haul?

Red lettuce, harukei turnips, kale, chard, broccoli, oregano, rosemary, basil, mint, 2 qts strawberries, more komatsuna,  mustard greens (!!), and a handful of calendula flowers to brighten my kitchen.

Time to get to work!

That’s right, folks. I broke out my “scale” yesterday.

I needed to divide some gorgeous yarn pirate superwash bfl in the cupcake colorway into 2 balls in anticipation of today’s events; namely, the arrival of Socks From the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson. I learned of a massive KAL beginning this month and working, month by month, through the whole book. Chrissy of the Manic Purl podcast is participating, and her review of the book and discussion of the KAL piqued my interest. I checked out the group and decided that this might be just the motivation I need to keep working on my sock skills (and knit down some of my sock yarn stash).

Here’s one more picture of the yarn, which I will be using to knit the Lacy Ribs Socks for the June KAL.

This pattern seems to work well for handpainted and variegated yarns, and to be honest, I grabbed this from my stash because I wasn’t quite sure about the colors, and thought this pattern would be a good way to use it. Wound up, however, I adore it, and I cannot wait to get started!

Also in the land of precision (sort of): a whisper update! I returned to my ribbing, and late last night, bound off the collar stitches.

Here’s a close-up of the ribbing-that-seemed-as-though-it-would-never-be-completed:

It seems strange to not be posting Stripes! pictures. Do you want to see a few more? Good.

I snapped these yesterday after grafting the underarms/weaving in the ends and before dunking the sweater into a warm bath, where it promptly absorbed ALL of the water my teeny-tiny bathroom sink can hold. Here it is, blocking on the kitchen table:

I started reading a serious book yesterday, and it felt good to do some “work.” I’m planning to do more of that today, but the real news is that Tuesday is farm share day! The u-pick strawberry limit has been upped to 8 quarts (I picked 3 on Sunday), so I am planning some quality time in the berry patch this afternoon as well.

If you’ve been thinking about doing more sock knitting, check out the Socks From the Toe Up KAL group on Ravelry — super well-organized and epic in scale. (Plus, there are some great monthly prizes.)

The stockinette portion of Ishbel is absolutely flying! Talk about a satisfying knit. No visible progress to report on my 28thirty sleeves, but I am dutifully working on it at home.  It has taken me twice as long to upload photos for this post because I’ve been simultaneously eating half of one of these espresso banana nut muffins:

Soon I’m going to heat up some cheesy Sweet Potato Spoon Bread leftovers for lunch:

Both of these recipes are from Supernatural Cooking, the most recent cookbook from Heidi over at 101cookbooks. My kitchen binder of internet recipes has a healthy selection from her blog, and this cookbook does not disappoint — I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve made from it, and the book itself is gorgeous. Also, one more plug for those muffins — they use white-whole wheat flour, natural cane sugar, less butter than you’d expect, and yogurt. I was expecting the white-whole wheat flour to yield a pretty dense, dry muffin, and I was happily surprised with the result. These are light and moist, and I will certainly be making them again!

Boh is pouting because he can’t have either of these treats. I promise I’ll take him on a longer W-A-L-K today to make up for it.

Have a great weekend!

This sleeve is slowly lengthening. Why is it that the closer I get to completing this sweater, the slower my progress looks to me? This project is no longer appropriate for bringing anywhere except a designated knitterly gathering, both because of its size and because of the way I feel like my arms flail about as I tug on cables and untwist the sleeve along my way towards magic looping to the wrist. Whining aside, I love this and cannot wait to prance about in it. (Yes, I said prance.)

Because I have a serious problem with project monogamy, and because I had a lecture to attend yesterday, I cast on something new.

It is true; I’ve caught the Ishbel bug. I’ve been resisting the urge to knit this for some time now: Lace is hard! Another fingering weight project when I still have socks on the needles? And then, after viewing many a lovely Ishbel, I saw this one over at brokeknits. I bought the pattern immediately.

I’m using some gorgeous slightly variegated deep purple Yarn Pirate fingering weight, and I’m hoping to successfully combine the small and large sizes — large st portion, small lace version, to use all the yarn. We’ll see how that goes!

A few more Boh pics that are too sweet and silly not to share:

We may have fallen asleep here together on Monday night…

Someone is very pleased with his cookie. Time for me to get back to work!

So I cancelled my Yarn Pirate Booty Club Membership recently to justify to myself that I could join the Vamp Sock Club and also because of a $1500 tax bill I owe this year (don’t even ask- NO I don’t make that much money, it was a mistake by a realtor from some land my husband sold…) that I just felt like it was something I needed to do… and I haven’t been too crazy about the colorways recently… Loved HOPE didn’t like Daffodilly…

but my Mommy asked what I wanted for my birthday (next month April 16th- but she only gets paid monthly and if it was going to be something big, now was the time…) and I said BOOTY CLUB< BOOTY CLUB < BOOTY CLUB!  So she sent me the money to re-join and to purchase the 3 month subscription so I can just get the yarn without worrying about the cost.  YAY! Thanks mom!! and double YAY!! for early birthday gifts.  and YUCK for TAXES.  Cause they suck.  So I just re-joined.  <dancing wildly around living room> Now if there are just spots left in Naughty Girls Sock Club when my bday $$ from my daddy comes, I will be in great shape sock yarn wise…  And Yarn Pirate is having a contest on her blog so everyone go over and check it out!

ETA- Just got my March 09 Booty Shipment- sorry again for crap cell phone pic- it is called Rain Shadow (I think- it is sitting across the room and I am too lazy to walk over there and double check.)

This is what happens when your pregnant, stuck on a couch with a computer. You order a bunch of pressies for yourself! I ordered some yarn from Purl Soho for the Blanket Bob pattern…

Blue Sky Alpacas 100% Sport Weight Alpaca - Cappuccino

Joseph Galler Belanger 100% angora - Fuschia

And I also ordered a sampler set of sock yarns from Sharing.etsy.com. It’s around 1000 yards! I’m using them for the Blender Socks. I can’t wait to cast on these socks, they look so fun! I’m just gonna go crazy and do like 6 rows in each color.

Sampler Set of Hand Dyed Sock Yarn #130 - 1000 yards

AND…… I ordered some more sock yarn this morning from Yarn Pirate! I couldn’t resist. I’ve been drooling over the yarn for a few days and thought, why not?! So it will be mine! Muhahahaha….

Yarn Pirate Hand Dyed Sock Yarn - Dahlia

So that was my yarn buying adventure… for now. I picked up some gray Alpaca dk weight yarn yesterday at the Fiber Factory. I was gonna use it to make the Sunray neck scarf, but I didn’t like how it knit up using the design. I love the design, just not the yarn with it, I think I need a bit thicker yarn for that pattern. It left to many gaps. I might use the yarn to make a mini clapotis perhaps? It might look a little boring, but I think it would be so soft and light! So we’ll see.

I’m home today due to some light contractions. I’ve had 3 contractions from 4:45 to 6:00 this morning. I have about 6 weeks left to go, so I called the doctor on the overnight duty this morning and she said it sounds like Braxton Hicks and I should get off my feet. So… I will do just that. Gonna relax on the couch, watch trash tv and knit! Ahhhh, I love the doctors orders!

Hooray! I love these socks. Not quite done in time to be appropriately celebrated as part of socktoberfest, but still the fastest full-size socks to come off of my needles to date. To review (raveled here): the yarn is Yarn Pirate BFL sock in colorway June Bug. The pattern is one of the basic Ann Budd patterns from Getting Started Knitting Socks – 8 st/inch, 72 stitches CO. I used 2.5 mm needles. These are a tad big around the ankles, but the foot and heel fit well, and the yarn feels like a dream on my feet. In fact, I may need to acquire some hip clog-like shoes in order to begin showing off handknit socks. Always on the incentive program, perhaps I’ll do some internet window shopping after I read another 100 pages.

Also, it is time to decide on patterns and yarns for the next pair(s) — anybody have favorite sock patterns for boys to recommend?

Happy Monday!

My kitchener-ing is getting better. I love this sock, and I am beginning to see why in the blogs I read (anecdotally, anyway), folks who are in grad school might knit a lot of socks: it is nice to feel like you are making progress when you pick up and put down the needles in between endless amounts of reading. I plan to cast on the second sock after I prep for the discussion I’m leading in class today…

Boh is worried about my june bug socks. He thinks that I’ll get distracted with life and other knitting projects and never finish them. Never fear, my dear dog. The first heel has been turned. And I have proof:

If I can get some serious reading done this morning, I’ll reward myself with some podcast listening and sock knitting later today. Looks like it is going to be a rainy Sunday, worthy of pots of tea and curling up on the couch.

Somehow I managed to use up all of the week’s eggs in a 24-hour period without even realizing it. You see, I made bread pudding (far above, and from Mark Bittman’s big yellow book) in order to put my moving-towards-stale homemade bread to good use. Yesterday’s frittata (recipe here) was absolutely necessary, as I needed to procrastinate AND I had some summer squash begging to be released from the veggie drawer.

Despite all of the reading I’m doing, I have been allowing myself some knitting breaks to clear my head, or, as in the case of this morning, give the coffee a little bit of time to work its magic.

I absolutely love the striping. Yesterday, I began the heel of #1, and I am excited to see how the colors arrange themselves in this part of the sock. (I’m just using the basic fingering weight sock recipe in Ann Budd’s Getting Started Knitting Socks, which I highly recommend.)

Also, it feels like fall here. Hooray for handknits!

My Sunday morning began with some muffin making. I was out rather late with friends from the Southwest last night, and Boh still wanted to wake up at our regular time. If you have to get up earlier than you’d like, the wonderfulness of muffins wafting from the oven certainly helps with the expected crankiness.

I received a box from WEBS this week, containing materials for several pinwheel blankets and a cobblestone sweater for me:

Thus, I cast on for pinwheel blanket wedding gift #3 (Valley Yarn Northampton in Apple):

Also, because I have a need for a portable project for guest lectures, bus rides, etc. (and because I need to work on my goal of knitting more socks/taking advantage of my sweet Yarn Pirate Booty Club membership), I also cast on for a plain stockinette sock using this beautiful superwash BFL in June Bug:

I really like the way the yarn is striping, and these are already moving along quite quickly. Details: I’m using the basic sock formula for fingering weight yarn from Getting Started Knitting Socks, by Ann Budd, and I’m using 2.5 mm (US 2) needles.

I’m off to eat muffins! Have a great weekend.

I love them. LOVE. I finished these in two weeks, while working on other things, and I am super proud of them. The heels look far more awesome than my last pair of socks, and I even kitchenered a bit better (though on the second one, something weird happened and I was left with a loop I couldn’t tighten. I finally just used a scrap piece of thread to help me pull it to the inside, where it will hopefully stay). Anyway, I love them. Despite the serious pooling:

Also, they look so cute with my purple crocs:

I wore this combination around the house while packing this morning, even though it is really too hot for socks and shoes. I also had a tea date with my landlord — I live in her backyard, so she came over this morning to learn how to knit. She is a natural — was able to do a long-tail cast on after watching me cast on 3 stitches. We had a lovely visit — such a nice way to end my 2 years here. (I move out on Saturday.)

This post is harder than usual to write, not because of the content, but because I just took Boh for a run, and it is far hotter outside than I anticipated. I am working on rehydrating now — should’ve had more agua last night and this morning before our run. Also, my body is a bit sore, as I went on my first run in quite awhile on Saturday. Yay for number 2. Here’s what the dog is doing:

Ooh — and this is unrelated, but I made some color choices this weekend:

I may be leaving the Southwest, but I’m bringing its love of color with me. Hope you’re having a great 3-day weekend. I’m off to a badminton yard party for the afternoon…

Anybody? (The Cutting Edge? Elementary school sleepovers?) Anyway, that’s what I think whenever I complete a heel flap. Can’t really explain it. See? Heel flap:

Toe pick! Also, it was very hot this week. So hot that I began second guessing my summer knitting plans. (Heading to Base Camp next week for the summer, and everything else I own is slowly making its way out of this teeny house and into a shiny storage unit.) I fell in love with this sweater from Knit.1 magazine: the gathered cardi. This is way cooler than I am, and may make me feel like I am playing dress up, but I really like it. I’m realizing as I pack that I may need to adapt my wardrobe a bit for graduate school, as I doubt it will require carharts and backcountry gear anywhere near as often. (Justification of need for sweater and thus, yarn, accomplished. You see, I don’t have any cotton in my stash!)

There it is: 8 skeins of Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, in a mustardy-yellow/pea green shade. Won’t this be lovely with a big old wood button? Also, in the interest of full disclosure, here’s my stash.

It has been organized and in plastic tubs for a few weeks now, but today is the day it is going into the storage unit. I’ve made my summer knitting decisions, and I’m sticking to them. (Though my storage unit is easily accessible between the hours of 8 and 6 should I require anything additional on the days I come into town…) It is already in the car, and the clock has struck eight. Time to take more stuff to storage!