socks that rock

Apparently so many women sign up for the Socks that Rock Club that the bank thought they were doing something illegal and shut them down, and Yes I am one of those thousands of women who tried to sign up for the Socks that Rock club.

http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/2007/01/19/bank-cracks-down-on-wily-yarn-merchant/

The first installment of the Socks that Rock club arrived yesterday. And WOW! It came with some great yarn, a cute keychain with a itty bitty skein of yarn, a folder, a pattern, a button, a folder , and interesting foot facts.

I was a little wary signing up for this club. I have so many skeins of sock yarn all ready in my stash. PLus there are so many other items I want to knit besides socks. BUt I am so excited with this first shipment from the club. The pattern is great. It is the first sock pattern that I've been excited about in a long time. The yarn isn't a colorway that I would have choosen for myself if I were looking at colorways on a monitor. Too dark and too muddy. But the yarn is luscious, and I think I could grow to love the color. I woke up this morning thinking about the yarn and the pattern.

So I promptly finished the Cherry Tree Hill Birchs socks. I wanted to free up the needles. They are top down with short row heels and toes. I ended them about 2 inches too short for myself. Luckily they fit Augy perfectly (right now - who knows when his next foot growth spurt will be). PLus they are masculine enough of a colorway that he likes them. So win-win: Augy got socks in a color that he likes, I got to free up some needles to start my socks that rock.

PIc is very fuzzy, but at least you get to see the colorway.

But here is is 10:30 pm and I have still yet to cast on for my socks that rock. Why haven't I cast on yet on a day that I don't have any rehearsals, concerts or students? Becuase I was trying to finish a tank for the shop sample. ONly it turned into a great big Uh-Oh. Total disaster. The biggest crocheting, knitting disaster I've had in a long long time.

More on this with pics later .

pattern from One Skein - Miss priss yarn
Pattern from Yarn Play - Cash Iroha and Silk Garden
Pattern - my own - yarn - unknown
pattern - my own - yarn - Steadfast Fibers Mostly Mohair and Wonderfully Wooly in Columbine.

I've been busy. IN the five weeks since my last blog I've finished two adult sweaters, a toddler sweater, a pair of gloves, one sock (started it months ago), and half of a tank. I also worked the Super Bowl Sunday sale at Colonial Yarn shop. I wore my poppy sweater there and at least 5 ladies bought the yarn and book to make the same sweater.

At Colonial Yarn Shop I taught Japanese Short Row socks, Reversible Rib Scarf, Beginning KNitting, and started the first class for the Tote'Em Modular tote class. Also I taught two classes at Stitch Your Art Out - Japanese Short Row socks, and Reversible Rib cables. Whew!

Time flys when I'm knitting or talking about knitting.

Harrisburg Symphony just emailed the repertoire list for 2007-2008!
HSO Masterworks Series - 2007-08 Season

October 6-7
Wagner Tannhauser Overture
Dvorak Violin Concerto
Tchaikovsky Symphony #2

November 17-18
Rossini La Gazza Ladra Overture
Hindemith Mathis der Maler
Brahms Piano Concerto #1

January 12-13
Sibelius The Swan of Tuonela
Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1
Bartok Concerto for Orchestra

February 16-17
Diamond Rounds for String Orchestra
Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5
Mendelssohn Symphony #3 "Scottish"

March 8-9
Rimsky-Korsakov Capriccio Espagnol
HigdonPercussion Concerto
Walton Partita for Orchestra
Ravel La Valse

April 5-6
Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem
Beethoven Symphony #9

May 10-11
Copland Appalachian Spring
Strauss Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
Stravinsky The Rite of Spring

YUCK! There is nothing on this list I'm interested in performing. Maybe it is time to hang up the viola. ONly problem - how will I pay for my yarn addiction?

no duh weight loss program

Nothing about knitting today. Except that I'm working feverishly on my poppy sweater to get it done by super bowl Sunday for my first day at work as a yarn store employee.

I'm not going to post any before and after pics, but just trust me when I say that I've lost 30 pounds in 3 months. How did I do it? I did a no-duh diet program. I cut out cakes, pies, cookies, candy, ice cream, juice, soda, and sugar in my tea. Then I went to the YMCA and excercised on their eliptical trainers and did cybex weight machines 3 to 5 days a week. Results - 30 pounds in 3 months.

I didn't change anything else about my diet. I started out slowly with the work outs. At first all I could do was 10 minutes at a time on the elipticals and only maybe 5 to 20 pounds on the weight machines. Gradually I added one minute more, until now I do 45 to 60 minutes of cardio, and 40 - 180 pounds on the weight machines. I started out going only 3 days per week and now I alternate 4 days and 5 days a week.

Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas were hard. I did eat a few sweets, but I limited it to just a tiny sliver of candy and just a quarter of a slice of pie.

This really is the no - duh diet: cut out sweets, add cardio and strength workouts and you'll lose weight. Is it a pain in the neck to have to reserve 2 hours out of the day to work out. But I get those 2 hours back because I'm not as tired and don't need naps like I used to.

I went from a size 16 to a size 8! Maybe I'll get down even smaller by this summer. Keepin ght sweets out of my diet is the hardest part.

Reversible Rib Cables

Taught my first Reversible Rib Cable class last night. It was a full house (10). The shop where I teach can only handle at most 10 students at a time. I think the class went well. If my students walk away from a class feeling like they learned something they couldn't get from a book or figure out on their own, then I feel like it was a success.





For those of you unfamiliar with reversible rib cables here are pics and a description:





This is a knitting pattern with no wrong sides, ribs, and a different cable on each side. Perfect for afghans and scarves where reversibility is desired.
The two blue swatches are the same swatch (different sides). It was done with Cascade 220 and was my first experience with reversible rib cabling.








The bottom grey scarf as a different cable pattern on either side. It was done with Cascade Baby ALpaca Chunky with done double stranded.
The Cascade baby alapaca Chunky was heavenly soft, but a little too slippery for this project. Plus it didn't block very well. I've started another in Sirdar Nova that I think will go much better.

Trip Down memory Lane and Entrelac Scarf in Diadomina

Trip down memory lane.
These pictures are from the summer of 2005 when I Crocheted Suzannah a Martha Coming Home poncho in Lion Brand Landscapes yarn. Yes, I was caught up in the Martha Stewart Coming Home Poncho craze. I crocheted a total of three ponchos (of course bought enough yarn for 5 ponchos - but only completed three). One for Suzannah, one for Heidi and one for Zina. All in Lion Brand yarns.

This is the Lucy Neatby Garter Stitch Entrelac Scarf http://www.tradewindknits.com/threvgar.html done with Diakeito Diadomina yarn. Love, love love the yarn and the pattern.

The yarn had the same self patterning in wonderful colorways as Noro, but is much more polished. Diakeito is like a more refined version of Noro. I bought the yarn and the pattern at The Mannings in East Berlin, PA.

These pictures are of an unblocked scarf that has been worn everyday for two months and wrung and twisted every which way.

I started this scarf last summer after I signed up for the "Engineering in Entrelac" class at Stitches East. I signed up first then read the pre-requisit that you must have done entrelac before taking the class. After an exhaustive internet search for an appropriate first entrelac project I was at The Mannings "just looking" and this yarn and this pattern just grabbed my attention.

As with all of Lucy Neatby's patterns it was well written and there wasn't a thing I'd change about it.

Most Entrelac patterns I've seen look, well, yuck. Yuck colors, in unflattering cut. I never met an entrelac pattern that I wanted to knit until...........

Normally I'm not drawm to neutral colors. But this looks like it would be very flattering to my body type. One of these days I'm going to sit down and decipher this pattern and knit it (it is in Japanese, and contrary to popular belief American born Chinese aren't born with the ability to read Japanese).

Right after the 2,000+ other projects I want to knit and crochet.

Tote Em Tote

Finished the Tote Em tote from Knitter's magazine #84, Fall 2006. Here is a link to color various parts http://www.knittinguniverse.com/flash/webfeatures/paintbox/k84toteem.html





I knit this with Cascade 220 and Artful Yarns Shakespeare. The original tote in the magazine only used three different colors. I used a total of 5 different colors (I'm going the Shakespeare as only one color even though it is multicolored). I'll be teaching a class at Colonial Yarn shop this spring on making this tote. I counted 58 different times you could change colors in this pattern. I think maybe I'll make another one and see how many different colors I can use and have it still look good.





Here are some of my modifications (in addition to using more than three colors):





For an easier pick up edge I made sure to keep the selvedges in stockinette and to move the decreases in one stitch from the edge. Since I used a multicolor for the center squares I didn't want the colors just to stripe in a diagonal. So I used the pattern from Barbara Walker's Learn to KNit Afghan book for the garter stitch square knit from the center. I used a temporary cast on when making the gusset. PLus I put the final stitches of the gusset on a stitch holder. Then when I finished sewing the gussets to the fronts I took out the temporary cast on. Then I had live stitches on both ends of the gussets as well as the tops of the fronts to do the i-cord bind off.





MIstakes:


I forgot to braid the handles before felting. I did the outer ring of one of the fronts all in one piece and knit too many rows. The shakespeare is a pain in the neck to frogg.


I did a slip stitch edge on the gusset thinking it would make sewing easier. I should have kept that in garter to practice my mattress stitching in garter.



I wasn't very neat in sewing the handles to the bag. Next time I'll have to remember to braid the i-cords before felting.

Questions:
I wonder if I tried making the gusset with my ADdi Turbo Express KNitting machine if it would felt ok. The addi machine only makes stockinette. The Tote'Em tote pattern calls for garter stitch. Would a stockinette tube attached to a garter stitch piece felt o.k.? I'm thinking of trying a mini tote'em (halve all the stitches) to test the tube sewn to the garter stitch front idea. The gussett and the i-cords were the only tedious portions of this pattern.


This was a fun pattern. Good thing I had a deadline to make it for display at the colonial yarn shop, or I would have toss the gusset strip aside and maybe finished the darn thing in 2 or 3 years.