Panda Cotton - Socks In The Works

Well, after all the excitement and cheering of finishing my first ever pair of socks, I started on the next. I realized I really like ankle socks and went in search of a more basic pattern than the previous one I worked on. I wanted the leg portion of the sock to be shorter. Well, I was somewhat unsuccessful in finding a pattern already written and didn't want to pay for a pattern since I have all these sock books that I figured I should have found something there. Well I remembered in some of the sock groups on yahoo, some listers talked about reducing the number of rounds on the 'leg' portion and just continuing with the pattern. I then decided to draw up a very basic pattern through Sock Wizard's program (http://www.knittingsoftware.com/). I have decided to tackle the task of making shorter ankle socks than my previous one. I am continuing this journey. . .

Finished the Retro Anklet Socks!

Whoa!!! I finally finished the sock mate on Wednesday night. I worked feverishly to finish, while watching back to back episodes of "Law & Order: CI". I am so amazed that I really really made a pair of socks. After reading and watching tutorials and watching DVDs on knitting socks, I finally put it all into practice and produced two socks = one pair!!!

Small Throw Afghan

This throw was knitted by me for my youngest daughter. One of the very first items I embarked on that was not a scarf, but you can say this is a large scarf for the bed! I wanted to use this yarn as it felt soft and my daughter just fell in love with the color. So I decided to try my hand a doing something slightly different than a shawl or scarf. I used two colors as you can see, blue and cream and the color combo worked rather well.

I used Lion Brand's Boucle in blue and cream. Used very large knitting needles size 19 US. I used the wooden needles by Clover and they felt like drum sticks in my hands. I occasionally went around pretending I was in "Drumline" and did the moves to my daughter's embarrassment.

The Last Knit Video on YouTube

Cute video to watch:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM

Quote of the Week

"The Sound of Learning is Overwhelmingly Deafening."

My Mother's Knitting

Debbie Bliss Cashmarino Yarn - Crocheted Baby Blanket in Blue Cashmarino (although in the photo it looks quite white), Knitted Baby Sweater (or Cardigan) in Cashmarino White with Blue trimming and Knitted Baby Hat in White with Blue Border.
These items were knitted by my mom. She does pretty good work!!

Sunset Square Mitered Afghan

This is an afghan I started several months ago. I only completed two full squares before my mom got a little too tired of my taking so long on it. She completed this afghan in less time it took me to complete '2' squarees. The afghan is made with Noro's Kureyon 100% Wool and sewn together with Noro's Silk Garden Lite. The pattern called for 16 skeins of Kureyon but used 18 skeins which left us with nothing to sew the squares together, so we improvised and used a lighter version of Noro's wool and used it double stranded. I know, I know, we're not supposed to mix and match yarns, but who can tell?!

Anyway, Noro's Kureyon was a difficult yarn to work with. There were many knots found in the skeins and lots of thins and thick throughout the yardage. Both my mom and I learned to 'splice' yarn without having to make 'knots' to piece it together. Just as difficult as this yarn was to work with, so was taking a photograph of it!!! I will continue to experiment with lighting in order to take a better photo of it and replace these, but I wanted to put these up for your 'enjoyment'.

Newest Update on Retro Anklet Socks

Well OKAY!!! I finally finished ONE sock. And as promised, here is the picture. As you can see I have started my second sock -- its mate.

As I started the sock and worked on it, the funniest thing happened. I could not recall how or what I did to achieve the first sock. I then started to panic and in my sleep I was obsessing about the pattern, the stitch count, the needles, the colors, etc. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep last night, but I am on my way with the second sock.