Sgt. ColePepper's Lonely Socks Club

It's done!! It's really done!!!

It's really a sock!!! My first good, functional sock knit to completion. And I love it. I danced around the house last night with one sock on until 4 am from sheer joy and excitement over finally defeating my sock demons!

And my goodness, check out the heel :

This heel was made possible by the best short row sock heel tutorial I have ever seen!!! I have tried countless times to knit a good heel, but this was the perfect tutorial for the heel challenged. Lots of pictures and good, useful descriptions. I loved it. And I love my sock.

So right now I am running around the house with one sock on [still] revelling in the joy that is sock knitting. Not to be underknit - I have cast on for its mate. It can't stay in Sgt. ColePepper's Lonely Socks Club forever. By the way, my greatest friend ever is the queen of nicknames - and she started calling me ColePepper. She is home knitting furiously right now to impress me when she comes back with her first ever scarf!! [yep, I taught her and she is cursing me for causing her continued unproductiveness]

She also owes me a photoshoot - I have FO's!!! :) Namely, a wicked sweater. Or two. Or three!!

Whoo hoo!

The new Knitty is up!! What's going to be the hot item this season??

Let there be socks!

Like all good knitters, I have accumulated quite the stash of yarn. Elisabeth, my aunt who taught me how to knit in the first place, calls me a "one-skeiner." And it's true! I will buy one skein of just about anything. Maybe even two. And my collection of "one-skeins" and "two-skeins" of koigu is killing me. I cannot knit socks. Try though I might, I have failed repeatedly, each time buying more sock yarn as punishment and inspiration to learn to get it right. I know what I want : a toe-up sock (because my sewing skills are poor I can't mess with kitchener right now), and a short row heel so it looks like a sock you would buy in a store. And ankle socks are definitely my favorites. Because I am not known to be defeated by anything, here I go again.


Pattern : Pom-Squad by MagKnits
Yarn : 100% Superwash Merino Handpainted by Whorled Peace
Colorway : Jasmine
Needles : US1 Bamboo DPN's


Progress Shot : Please allow me to make a little promise to you now ... no half naked foot shots on this blog! Ever! Unless I knit pedicure socks... but that's another entry. As you can see, its coming along quite nicely and I'm really really happy with it!! I love this yarn, super soft and squishy and the colors are just gorgeous! Here is a colorway closeup : I'd say the colors are closest to the yarn cake picture, with more blue which just isn't shown well on this side of the ball.

And my excitement for the weekend? My yarn arrived from the Knittery in Australia!!!

Luscious, 100% merino laceweight in Moonlight Colorway. Destined for an Ene's Scarf? We shall see!!

I have some FO's to post... but I need to deliver a surprise gift before I can show off the goods ;)

Know Your Own Strength When Knitting Lace

When knitting lace, it's important to know your own strength. I recently completed my first lace project for ISE4, and I really liked the final result. Plus, Emma knit up the most fabulous scarf, in White Willow's Neopolitan yarn, and OMG I fell in love. If not for her I would have most likely not discovered Brooke's fabulous yarn, or even had the notion to knit lace. So Emma's pattern is Heartstring's Lacy Scarf II, and you can see a sample of the pattern here.


Here's what I've got so far, on the first repeat :

And a close up :

I copied the yarn right down to the colorway, its Neopolitan laceweight yarn from White Willow, knit on US5 Bamboo straight needles and those are 8/0 gold seed beads. I thought I was doing so well, and that this was seaming up to be a quick and easy project.

Then I forgot how strong I was. And how lace weight yarn isn't made of steel. I broke the yarn. Strongarmed it, is more like it. Sliding the beads down the yarn really is frustrating me, and I just snapped it like a twig in a hurricane. And I tied it back together, and of course the beads won't go over the knot. Is there an easier way???? Damn beads.

I don't even like the beads that much! I mean, I like them in the pattern, but the color, I could live without. But do you know how hard it is to find size 8/0 beads? 10/0 - billions of colors. Even 6/0 - billions. 8/0? Ten colors. It was so pathetic, this was just the best of the worst. Next time I'm sizing up to 6/0 and I don't care what the pattern says. I'm sure my mom would say that bigger beads have more pizazz. [She always claims I don't have enough pizazz, but I think she needs to cut back on her pizazz.] In fact I can almost guarantee that when I bring this little number over to show her, she'll comment on the size and/or color of the beads. It's almost a guarantee.

I was planning on posting pictures of my Tempting from Knitty, but damn that is the most boring knit of all time. Miles and miles of endless ribbing, so to amuse myself I have turned to learning to knit continental style, just to break up the monotony of the whole thing. I decided that will be my airplane project. Because if I can't handle beads on the couch, I definitely can't handle them in aisle seat 12C.