Help!!

I need help picking my yarn for my monkeys!

DH had to go in to Columbus (Ohio) to do a bit of work so DS & I rode along and we ended up going to the Knitters Merchantile. They had the jitterbug sock yarn which I had not seen in person yet. I got 2 skeins of it and a skein of tofutsies. I got the Fire and the Castagna. I think I am going to use the Castagna for some socks for DH. You can see the colors here
http://www.colinette.com/sess/utn;jsessionid=154632730aab345/shopdata/0020_yarns/0007_wools/0005_jitterbug/full_range.shopscript


When we got home there were the 2 colors I ordered of lorna's laces in my mailbox. I have Georgetown and Rainbow. They can be seen here by View all Lorna's multi colors here
http://www.lornaslaces.net/colors.asp I am thinking the Georgetown out of these 2

The tofutsies I got is number 728 seen here http://www.soysilk.com/tofutsies.html#newcolors

I am more leaning towards the lorna's laces georgetown but also seriously considering the jitterbug fire

What do you all think?

Yeah! Monkey Socks

Thanks for letting me join this knit along. I've been looking at the Monkey socks for a while just waiting for the perfect time to knit them up. And I think this is it. Now must go visit the stash for the "perfect" yarn....

judith

Sailing...

Hi ladies,
I am so sorry I have not been around much. I have just been swamped..just utterly swamped. The orders part of being swamped is great..I really enjoy sending great yarns out to you...but it is the taxes and book keeping part that has really kicked my but...because of course I put it off...bleh.
Anyways, I will be away for the beginning of the Monkey Along so I wanted to post the pattern.
http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter06/PATTmonkey.html

Funny how this pattern is not in the archives? Anyways, I will be monkeying along with you in B.C. I am so excited to use my handspun for this pattern. It is my first sock weight handspun...whoo!

I will post photos of progress when I get back. You can see pictures of the handspun here.
Happy Monkey MAY!!

The Monkey Made Me Do It...

Well, actually it was the yarn. I thought I'd just cast on, maybe do a little ribbing, sort of swatch.... The next thing I knew, I had a sock! I have set it aside in what will probably be a vain attempt to catch up on some April / May knits, but this stuff is so gorgeous in the hands, it'll be hard to resist until May :).

You can click the picture for details if you want.

Have a great weekend everyone! Karin at http://pointeshoespunkrockandpurl.blogspot.com/

Jody

Since that worked so well the last time - and I really need a break from dealing with my work email (shhhh! don't tell anyone, but I am taking a 10 minute break). If you want the whole thing just head ---> to here. But if what you would like are pix?



And the toe is done for the second sock, now to the lace pattern.

-Holly

Hi!!

Hi All!! I am joining the Monkey Along too. I can't wait to start either!! I just hope my yarn gets here and I hope my yarn gets here & is ok. I ordered lorna's laces in georgetown to do these socks. If my yarn does not get here soon, I will make a trip to Columbus to go to one of the yarn shops to get some yarn. Hopefully also my DH will have my computer network working properly so I can post pics.

Nice to meet everyone
Loretta

Maybe I can do this from here!

Since pictures of my current socks in progress on my blog here I am going to see if I can manage to pull a couple of pictures to here (without uploading).
There is Glamour



Which is knit from Sweetsocks merino/tencil in colorway Scarlet Letter. I love the feel of this yarn in my hands as I knit it and it should wear well, but there is not much elasticity to the yarn. Be warned.

And then there is a pattern I am test knitting - Jody's Socks


Which is out of Zen Yarn Garden in colorway Norwegian Shores. It is a lovely yarn with the striping and color changes being soft and smooth. Unlike many hand dyed yarns, it does not take away from the pattern. This is a toe up, I like it except for lace panel on the heel. It may be pretty, but I don't wear clogs and have found anything that is decorative on the heel is irritating because it rubs. I will post it again in a day when done and see what you all think.

-Holly

not sure I'm doing this right....

Hi, just signed on through Michelle. I'm Becky from Minnesota. I've never been on a blog before, but I do knit socks. I really like Cookie's socks and thought a Monkey-along would be a good preliminary to doing Pomatomus, which I'd originally planned to do next month. I'm a s-l-o-w knitter. But, as I say to my much-faster knitting pals, there's no race, and besides, I like the process way more than the product (although the product is nice, too!) I think I have my yarn picked--some very nice Mystical Creations merino sock yarn--but I'm going to search my voluminous stash before settling on one.

In socks we trust!
Becky (housegecko)

Hello!

Hi All, Just wanted to pop in and introduce myself. I'm joining as part of the informal "Monkey Along", that Michelle mentioned on her blog. I love knitting Cookie's sock patterns, and seeing all the great finished versions of this, has me inspired :). I have some stash yarn that I'll be using, a wool / bamboo / nylon blend (the lighter one in the photo). Not sure if I can hold off until the May 1st start date, though. Looking forward to seeing all of your knitting projects.

I keep a knitting blog over at: http://pointeshoespunkrockandpurl.blogspot.com/, feel free to "visit".

Cheers, Karin

The View from here

Holly's pictures were so beautiful I decided to show you the view from my houseThis is the view off my bedroom balcony. We don't have any houses in front of us yet. It was a nice skating rink in the winter.
This is the view to the left of us
And the view to the right. Before the corner house went up we had a beautiful view of the lake.

But my favorite of all is the view out the store window. It is full of baby ducks and little families of animals!There is a path there that you can't see but in the summer there will be lots of corn and animals in the back

Well, I am

in Tel Aviv


The first photo is looking along the coast toward all the hotels on the beach. The second is looking toward Old Jaffa.

And specifically, I am knitting socks (why are you not surprised?).




Knit from cotton JaWoll on 2,5 mm dps over 60 stitches. Alternating rows of knit with *k4 sl1' gives just enough texture to make it interesting and doesn't slow you down a bit.

-Holly

WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE?

Has everyone abandoned ship?

Hello, anybody there?? What happened to all the knitters?? Me, I was in the barn yesterday evening.

Sweet Sheep, no?

THANK YOU!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

I was into mindful knitting this afternoon, and let me tell you how much harder it is than it sounds! I practiced on a new sock for my younger son (no, not at all what the book suggests), and even though I was paying attention to each stitch and so on, I couldn't shut out everything going on downstairs. I heard the TV, the kids, even the wind blowing outside. But I love it. Thanks to Jinxa for donating the books!

I am very grateful!

And it appears that April really wanted to be a sock month. I am totally in lust with this sock colour.

1/2 a decision

All -
A good friend of mine, Isobel, gave me one of those - OH DUH! - kind of suggestions.

Take your yarn, go through your closet and see what would look best with it.

One of the reasons that I am not happy with the particular off red as the main color is that there is not enough contrast.

I don't have much dark green, but it looked the best. But I would not wear it. The best options were a really dark charcoal and an "navy ink" which is a really dark navy. The contrast looked good and the pattern would stand out.

But I am doing socks right now. I like small projects. Have finished out two UFO pairs and am now turning the heel on the third orphan's mate.

-Holly

Hi. Just a quick update. The whining you can read on my blog. I'm saving extending the body for when the sleeves are done.

One Down

I grafted the toe of the first Jitterbug socks tonight and cast on for the second. That is the best way to avoid second sock syndrome in my opinion.
No photos because it was after dark but I will try to get some tomorrow before I go to work and post about them. I am really enjoying the yarn...I like the way it knits up too!

Need suggestions!

I have been making progress on the Cottonwood vest.
But the more I look at it, the less I like the color combination.

This is a bit closer up of the contrast.

Iam thinking that I might be better of with navy, denim or grey. I would really appreciate the opinion. I don't like or wear brown, so that is out. The other thing that occured to me is forest green, but there is a lot of red in the yarn.


Comments?
-holly

Suggestions?

Hey Holly? That's what I have so far. I thought about the sew and cut thing but I'm not overly fond of trying it on this sweater. I may have to dig out some of my finishing techniques books.

I don't know what I was thinking. At least it's not like I would have to rip half the sweater.

Ooops!

Not too long ago, I remember telling a friend to read the pattern all the way through before starting to knit. Too bad I didn't follow my own advice.
Hey Holly... no, the fronts will not be done once I get enough nerve up to rip! I kind of forgot the neck shaping. I was knitting my hubby's socks and I was thinking about getting back to the sweater, when I though: "I think I missed something. But I don't know what. Both fronts looked the same, after all. I wonder if the neck shaping is done in the button and neck bands." Yeah, right!

So within the next day or so, I will be swimming with the frogs.

Tigers won

At first they were going to be for my husband, but they turned out to be too bright for him. So they sat partly completed in my basket for a "while." I thought about my son, but his feet were too big and he has this lousy habit of walking around in his socks.
But the 18 year old daughter thought they were really cool, and they were tall enough that she can wear them with her ever present boots (as long as I shortened them a bit in the foot).
So there you have it - the original (2000) Opal Tiger knit on 64 stitches. They are 20 cm tall and 23 cm long. Knit on 2,5 mm needles.
(and another UFO vanquished!)
-Holly

My Confession

Ladies, I must make a confession.
I am leaving for my Cruise on April 28th and the Jitterbug socks are actually for someone on the cruise, so they have taken priority over my UFO.
I will still work on the UFO but I HAVE to get these socks done. So if no one minds i will post about my jitterbug socks here to have something to post about.
I am thinking that we might do a KAL for a sock pattern in May...any objections..ideas. That way we can hopefully have some new friends join us!

UFO of Choice

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

I finally decided on getting this Lopi sweater finished. It's a little over a year old and although it's not the oldest ufo in my possession, I could really use a nice cardigan.

I completed the few rows remaining on the right front, and got started on the sleeves. This is how far I got yesterday.

i am totally still not done

Can this count as my April UFO? I keep thinking I am just about to get to the point where I will start the v neck, and I'm just not knitting often enough (I knit pretty fast, just not as often as I'd like). I will finish it.........

Chinese Red is done

All right! It is done. facings, neck and armholes. DONE!!!! (sorry about the shouting). not.

It is now resting on the studio table recovering from getting wet and being blocked.

Ok, it needs buttons or knots. I have enough yarn left to make buttons or knots, but have not found any patterns I really like without cr*cheting. And I avoid going there if at all possible.

Since I rarely button anything, I can still wear it.

I had so much energy (and forgot the Niagara sock on the needles in the car) that I pulled out the single sock and decided that I would save it from being an orphan. It gave me a chance to play with the new set of 2,5 mm 15 cm long double points in bamboo that I picked up from Rödel today. They feel fine and have a nice play to them, but the points are not as sharp as I like.

I think when I have these done, and the Niagara's done - then I should be able to start something new....

Right?
-Holly

UFOs for April!

UFOs in April

Isn't that what we are doing?

Since this was a day off from work (there is a general officer who supports the idea of the occasional four day weekend) I chose to exercise my freedom by sleeping in and then knitting. Going from this since 2004

To this over the day (interspersed with a lot of other comings and goings.
I will tell you right now that the least fun was binding off the shoulders. For only 10 stitches on each side those stitches fought to stay free, jumping off the needles when I wasn’t looking. Taking a leap, they ran down away from the bind off. A springing yarn, the Gedifra merino had plenty of energy and obviously a mind of its own. Added and abetted in this endeavor by the ebony needles, I finally cried enough! Sliding them onto one needle., alternating the recalcitrant escapees from both front and back I forced them into submission with a K2tog and psso, locking them in pairs for the life of the waistcoat.

And then there was the small issue of being on the last ridge of the neckline and running out of yarn, spending 15 minutes rooting through the stash before finding the remaining ball of yarn from the same dye lot. [I had decided I was not going to cry even if I was 20 m of yarn short].

So now all I have left to do is the armholes. Feels rather good, considering that I have been spending the last week finishing up these baby sweaters. And I will not mention that I found two more orphan socks while searching out that most needed final ball of red...

-Holly

The End and the re start

Here is my sweater
Yeah, it looks a little funny? That's because I made the body too long and the arms are a bit short. Actually the arms fit in length, but because I had to cast on when I got to the armhole shaping I only had to knit a bit to do the sleeves...looks funny...looks funny on too..and the armholes are too small...what's that Holly....check...oh yeah...I thought I did. I few pounds lighter and a couple inches taller and it should fit just fine.


Alright...so here is my UFO. It is a pair of socks from Sundara's Petal collection..the colours are much more beautiful, but it has been raining for days so no Mr. Sun.This is the first sock, I tend to get bored when I have to pick up stitches...I hate picking up stitches. These are a long delayed "surprise" present for my sisters MIL...yeah she is that great that I even make someone else's MIL socks.
Wish me luck

I am Curious

Kind of like a cat. Hope it doesn't kill me!

May I ask, because I am nosy and curious, how many UFOs (knitting) are residing in your homes?

And why is that every time I try to reduce the number of UFO lounging around here, something irresistible comes along and I get distracted all over again?

These are some of the distractions. By no means All of them. The first picture is of a Lopi sweater I started during the Knitting Olympics, next is a cotton top-wanna-be from Pattons cotton booklet, and below is a sock that started its life on the fly right before MSM. (There are so many more...)
Okey doke, I'm going counting...

Just for the record

I finished up the sweater...just needed seeming on April 1st...it is now blocking..pictures to follow...also Barbara..can you email me for your prize...way to go!!

So Close!

I just about made it...I have the sweater half seemed up...then I got a call...from a bar...with lots of friends I have not seen in ages.
I rarely go out and made the decision to have some fun..so my sweater will be a day late. I am ok with that