Cookie Time!

It feels like I'm a guest blogger at this point, but really I'm not! Since Ludistitcher is hitting a bit of a knitting slump, I'm pitching in and actually putting up a post! I'll be trying to post more often. The photography and writing won't be as good, but I've got lots of finished objects to show off!

Anywho, let's talk cookies. Cookie A, that is. I joined the Cookie A sock club this year, and also joined a knitalong for her knit.sock.love book. The knitalong for the book started on January 1st, but in December they had a "any Cookie A pattern" knitalong. I looked in my Ravelry queue, and saw my November 2009 Rockin' Sock Club kit. The pattern is Raven Swirl by Cookie A, and the yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Lightweight in Blackbird. I finished them up in January, and here they are. They were really fun to knit and fit perfectly! It made me feel silly for letting the kit sit for so long.

Raven Swirls

Pattern:  Raven Swirl by Cookie A

Yarn:  BMFA Lightweight in Blackbird

Needles:  2.5 mm Signature DPNs

Greeting from Stitches Midwest!

Ludistitcher and I are having an awesome time. The Marketplace is all that I had dreamed of and more. I plead the fifth when it comes to how much money I have spent so far. We went to the fashion show tonight, which I really enjoyed. Especially when I won one of the door prizes after dinner-- a $5o gift certificate to one of the Vendor Booths!

Stash pictures will follow-- the light is much better in our hotel room during the day.

Speaking of our hotel room, there is a television in our bathroom mirror. What?!? How unnecessary yet awesome is that?!? Who doesn't want to watch a little David Letterman while drying off from their shower?

Our class is tomorrow. We'll be learning Intro to Entrelac. We miss you, Sariebeth!!!

A Challenge

I have spontaneously decided to challenge myself and knit something rather large in time for Stitches Midwest. It will be magnificent, and I will not say what it is until then. Either it will be complete and I will be wearing it, or I will be working on it while we're there. Either way, the big unveiling to Ludistitcher and Sariebeth will be on the way to Stitched Midwest on Thursday, September 10th. Can't wait, ladies! Most shocking of all, my secret project IS NOT SOCKS!!!

A Few More Finishes

I've finished a few more pairs of socks since we last saw each other, so I'm going to go ahead and show them off.

My first Monkey socks, which were super quick to knit when I actually had time to knit on them.

And Spring Forward, in Lorna's Laces Bittersweet colorway. I love the orange and purple! I guess I'm also showing off my new Knitpicks sock blockers. I basically got these solely for the purpose of photographing socks. On that note, I will leave you with a photo of my handy sock photographing helper, my sweetie husband Scott.

Ain't he cute?

A Quickie...

I recently took my 5 year old, Maya, to my LYS Knitting Off Broadway. She saw several yarns that she wanted me to buy and use right away. How can I resist that request?!? The following is the result of a small part of that day's yarn purchases. It's a scarf that I made out of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted in Sherbet. Maya loves it and it only took a few days of knitting. Cute!

Falling Behind...

So, I have a lot of sock yarn stash. I love this about me, but it makes me sad that I don’t get to use more of it. So this year I decided to do something about it. I gathered all of my sock yarn stash in one place.

I chose 4 of my favorite sock yarns, and I had each of my two kids choose their four favorites. This was the results are below. From left to right, it's Xander's, then mine, then Maya's.


I then pulled out all of the patterns that I had printed off of the internet and all of my knitting magazines, and I paired up all 12 sock yarns with a pattern. I now had 12 sock kits so that I could knit a pair of socks a month from my stash, like my own “Amy’s Stash” sock club.

However, I also joined the Rockin’ Sock Club and the Woolgirl Sock Club. These both ship every other month and alternate with each other, which means one pair of socks per month from a sock club. Two pair per month. 24 pair total. I can knit that, if not much else. So why am I behind???

January: I have a baby shower to go to, and (of course) I am knitting gifts for it. So I knit up the circular baby blanket, finished on January 17th. I start an adorable baby sweater the same day, which I finished on January 30th (JUST in time for the shower the next day!) Awesome of me, but it sucked up the month of January in terms of knitting.

My self stash January socks were a Basic Sock Yarn Pattern by Ann Budd, and I used Sunshine Yarns in Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, a sock yarn that I have loved since I bought it and hadn’t had a chance to use it yet although I had owned it for over a year (this is what I’m talking about!) So I started it January 27th, after I finished knitting the baby sweater but before assembling it. These socks were interrupted by the January shipment of the Rockin’ Sock Club! All of my sock club shipments so far have been at the very end of the month in question. I decided that sock clubs take priority over personal stash socks, so I started Queen of Beads on January 28th.

February: Finished Queen of Beads on February 18th. These are knit in STR lightweight in My Blue Heaven. Continued working on Basic Socks.

March: Finished my Basic Socks on March 1st. Go me! Unfortunately, I’m behind on my personal stash socks and my February sock club because it hasn’t even gotten here yet! Also on March 1st: started my February personal stash socks, Cookie A’s Monkeys using Artyarns Ultramarino in turquoise and brown (another of my favorites!) March 4th : started my February Woolgirl Sock Club kit! These were complicated with much cabling and took me waaaay too long to finish.

April: April 6th: Finished Majestic by Elizabeth Warner knit in Zen Yarn Garden Serenity in Gold Dynasty. Very pretty. April 7th : started Rogue Roses by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee in STR Mediumweight Gertrude Skein. These are still on the needle. One is done and the other is halfway down the leg.

So my current status is: January and February sock clubs complete, March sock club in process (will probably be done before April is over!) and April sock club should be at my door any day now. I am trying to knit like the wind and have my March sock done before April arrives! Personal stash socks: January is complete, February has ¾ of one sock complete. So I am behind and falling farther behind all of the time! However, my goal is still to knit 24 pairs of socks this year! Really, I’m just trying to make up for the whole month of January that wasn’t spent on socks, and the huge amount of time that the Majestic socks took!

Sorry for the huge blog, but I guess what I lack in quantity I make up for in volume!

Woolgirl Sock Club #1

Okay, I was so excited about getting my first Woolgirl sock club kit back at the end of February that I took tons of pictures, planning on blogging about it right away. Well, I'm finally ready to write that blog! First of all, here's the box and the happy helper ready to participate in the opening of said box:

Wow! Now that I know how long it takes to upload pictures on free wireless internet from a Ramada Inn, I'll have to instruct you to check out my Majestic socks project in Ravelry, where I've uploaded photos of the kit and my socks. I've been knitting on them while on vacation this week, so the second sock is about halfway done now.

The club kit included a large silk project bag from Lantern Moon (love!), a stitch marker from Mama Llama, some body lotion, a hand decorated card, a Soak sample, a pen that says "Queen of Knitting" (the theme of the kit was Cleopatra!), and a decorated origami box that contained two chocolates. One was silver dusted, one was gold dusted. The kids ate those :). And of course, the yarn and pattern. Two patterns, actually. One for a scarf and one for socks. I opted for the socks, which are cableicious and very time consuming! The yarn is Zen Yarn Garden in Gold Dynasty, a color unique to the 2009 Woolgirl sock club. The yarn is yummy to work with. I don't love the color, which is why I opted for the socks-- I knew I wouldn't wear a gold scarf. Okay, I'll add one photo of the kit, but then I'm going to bed. I have to drive back to Indiana tomorrow!

A Word From the Silent Partner

Hi! It feels like we never see each other any more! Tis I, Xandermommy, the least talkative of the famed Ludistitch bloggers! Way back, I mentioned that I had joined a few sock clubs. Well, I've received my first installment of the Socks that Rock 2009 Club, and completed those socks. I fell in love with them immediately. The blues and greens are just beautiful, and to top it off, these are beaded socks. I've never done any beaded knitting before, but this is a wonderful introductory pattern! Unfortunately, there were a few knots in the yarn. Not a big deal unless you have 100+ beads being stopped by said yarn. So...BEHOLD! Here is the Queen of the Beads pattern knit with Socks That Rock. Please ignore the pasty whiteness of my sad winter legs. Until next time, ta!

Sock Clubs and a Baby Blanket

So, I am new to the sock club world. But I was browsing about on Ravelry, and I saw mention of Sock Clubs. Apparently, most of them start at the beginning of the year, so this is the time of year for sign ups. You sign up through either a yarn dyer (Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin’ Sock Club) or a yarn shop (Woolgirl Sock Club). Paying for a sock club up front gets you a predetermined number of kits. Each kit contains enough sock yarn for a pair of adult socks, a new pattern usually exclusive to the club, and assorted goodies. The yarns are usually exclusive to sock clubs as well, at least for the year of the sock club. As I have mentioned before, I love sock yarn. I also have a little bit of a disposable income. Not a lot, but enough to indulge in this experience for one year and see what the big deal is. So I have signed up for a sock club (okay, maybe two) this year. They both have 6 shipments in 2009 that deliver every other month. However, one starts in January and one starts in February, so I’ll get a new delivery every month!!! I’m hoping to keep up with these sock kits, as in knit one before the other comes. We’ll see how it goes! I like the idea of having each project all picked out for me. I don’t pick out the color or the pattern. I’m hoping to knit each kit to the letter, and maybe learn some new techniques like toe-up socks, short row heels (hear that, ludistitcher?!), etc.

I have been knitting for the same baby that Sariebeth mentioned a few entries below. I’ve knit an adorable baby blanket, and I’m now knitting a cute little baby sweater. Once I’m done knitting that sweater, I’m done with any sort of deadline knitting, and I’m hoping to focus on knitting socks after that. I can’t wait!

I was going to talk about one of the sock yarn stash-busting techniques that I have come up with, but I seem to be running out of time for now. Until next time, I will at least share a pic of the aforementioned baby blanket. I love to show off! The pattern was free.




Pinwheel Baby Blanket knit with 4 skeins (788 yards) Universal Yarn Classic Worsted Long Print in baby shades on size 7 needles.

Might as well face it...

...I'm addicted to sock yarn. As my fellow bloggers can attest, I have a hard time resisting sock yarn. I want to have at least one pair of sock's worth of each brand of sock yarn that I see. And our two local LYSes stock many, many different types of sock yarn. I don't know why I love sock yarn so much, but I do.

Maybe it's because I love yarn, how soft and wonderful it feels, but I don't always know what to do with it. Since I don't know whether I might later want to knit a child's hat or a women's sweater, and since I don't have a pattern picked out at the moment, I don't know how much I'll need. But sock yarn is easy. I need 100 grams, give or take.

It could be because I love bright colors, but a little goes a long way. I just can't get into oatmeal or brown or cream, no matter how soft it feels. It's too dull for me. Sock yarns come in the most wonderful colors! And I can wear bright socks whenever I want to without attracting too much attention from the fashion police. And Cosby sweaters are out of style, I hear.

In any case, my addiction has come to a head. My two little minions, Xander and Maya, and I gathered all of my sock yarn onto my guest bedroom bed for a photo session.

Holy heck, I have a lot of sock yarn! This is not going to stop me from buying more (well, it might just a little bit, I really have too much!) but it is inspiring me to use it more. I have a few ideas and will blog about them in a few days. For now, you'll just have to enjoy some group photos of all of my sock yarn.