We Got the House!!!

Let the Holiday Knitting Begin!

Today is known by some as "Black Friday." The day after Thanksgiving in a BIG shopping day for alot of people. Not me. I have not even left the house! I do not like to shop much, except for yarn... I am snuggled up watching the snow and some movies, knitting away! My third turkey is the oven as well. I like to make extra turkeys since the price is perfect this time of year. Then the DH cuts them up and we freeze them for use in soups and casseroles throughout the year. So this is a very restful day for me. That is one of my holiday traditions.

I have already started my holiday knitting. I have my gift ready for the knitgoup white elephant. Of course I cannot share details or pictures here. Sorry.

We drew names at work for the Secret Santa. The person who I picked put socks as the first thing on her list of ideas! Perfect! And her favorite color was listed as green. So, I had a great idea - handknit green socks! Here they are so far:



Green/Blue/Tweed ribbed socks
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Essential Tweed hand dyed here
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony 2.25mm
Pattern: my basic toe up with 2X2 ribbing

My Braided Cable with Seed Stitch socks are waiting for heels.



On the Non-Knitting front

I recently finished a book by one of my favorite authors, Nicolas Sparks. It is his latest book called The Choice. I won't ruin it for you by giving away too many details, but it has a twist about halfway into the book. There is more than one choice to be made.

I also picked up a new CD the last time I was forced to go shopping at the mall against my will. It was the latest by Michael Buble, Call Me Irresponsible. It does not disappoint if you are a fan of Michael! While looking thru his CD's at the store, I found a DVD he released, had to get that too! It is cute! It has interviews while he is on the road and some new videos. He talks about how he got started singing and all. I am glad that I got it too! I still need to get his holiday CD, don't have that one yet (hint, hint).

Socktoberfest Socks Complete

The socks that I started for this years' Socktoberfest are finally done. YEAH!

Purple Tweed Pembrokeshires



Yarn: KnitPicks Essential Tweed Plum
Needles: Crystal Palace 2.25mm and Knit Picks Harmony 2.25mm
Pattern: Pembrokeshire Pathways here
cast on 64 stitches increased to 35 stitches on top
short row toe and heel
increased to 77 stitches after the heel
15 repeats on foot and 15 repeats on leg (5inches)
5 rows of row 4 of the pattern
modified Russian bindoff

Scrolls



Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted, Woodland Moss
Needles: rosewood 2.25mm
Pattern: Scrolls MSKS p95
Modifications: added 2 purl st each side
short row heel and toe
increased to 72 stitches after heel
5 repeats on foot and 5 repeats on leg
knit one row plain
modified Russian bindoff

Let me start out by saying that I like both socks. However, I think that I may rip the Scroll socks. Not because I do not like them, but I think I would like them better as fingerless mitts or gauntlets. Maybe they are just too nice to go on my feet, I don't know. I haven't weaved the ends in yet, I didn't even do ribbing at the top! Maybe I knew that I was going to reknit them. I don't mind, they were fun to knit and my first project from a chart. So I still have a sense of accomplishment from them. But I think I would enjoy them more as something else.

Anyway, I started a new pair of socks. Three times, ugh. The same sock, three times. But it was not my fault, although I thought maybe it was. They were just not coming out like the picture. How frustrating!! Before I gave up (because I liked how they looked in the book) I searched online and found this. Yup, the corrections to the pattern. So now, after a couple repeats of the corrected pattern, they look like the picture. Well, almost anyway.

Braided Cable with Seed Stitch



Yarn: Knit Picks Bare Essential Tweed
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony 2.25mm
Pattern: SKS p69
Modification: changed the "garter bead" to seed stitch

By the way, I had some questions about how I do my modified Russian bindoff.
I knit in pattern when I bind off.
so I work 2 stitches then K2tog TBL on the right needle
then I work another stitch and K2tog TBL with the previous stitch that was on the right needle, etc till I am out of stitches.

A nice stretchy bindoff for a top of a sock :)

What Became of the Sockotta

These went to work with me



and became socks



and coasters