Merry Christmas!

PODCASTS!!!

I LOVE knitting podcasts!!! I am so addicted, it's crazy. I have listed all the ones I listen to on my sidebar. I tried out many many more than that but they didn't make the cut. :-) There are two VERY popular podcasts that I do.not.like! Get ready to gasp, they are Cast On and Lime & Violet. I listened to about 10 episodes each and did not like either one.

My absolute favorites are The Knitting Cook, Stash & Burn, Socks in the City, She-Knits, Yarn Thing, Knit Picks, Knit Spirit, Sticks and String, Pointy Sticks, and Damknit. (She swears an awful lot in that last podcast but I really like her style.) I also really like It's a Purl, Man which took about 5 or 6 episodes to grow on me. Some of the podcasts I have listed haven't done a new episode in a long time so I'm not sure if they're done or not. I know Unwound is finished after 12 episodes which is a huge bummer since I just recently found that one and I love it. I've listened to half so far. Socks in the City is a hoot!

I tried to start at the very first episode of each podcast if possible. Some of them didn't start with #1 in iTunes. Then I went through and listened to each subsequent episode until I caught up. I'm still not caught up on some of them.

If you haven't listened to a knitting podcast yet, give it a try! But beware, it's addicting. :-)

Socks....or boots? :-)

Sorry I haven't updated lately! I decided to forge ahead and do some "fearless knitting", and try to pick up the gusset stitches on my own and guess what...........

.............it worked! I'm almost done with the foot! I've been working on my sock just about every day (I'm a slow knitter). I think the sock looks a little bit like a boot. :-) Since it's in worsted weight, it's pretty thick. It seems to fit so far though.

Here's a picture taken a few days ago before I started the foot....

Success!

I think! :-) I frogged back to the end of the leg rounds again and redid everything. I got some input regarding that weird section of stitches that I was confused about - I just redid it according to the instructions, disregarding my confusion about it, and this time it doesn't look so strange.

Last time my heel turn was not centered - this time it is and I figured out why! Last time I was looking at the wrong number for the heel flap and I did 26 rows instead of 24. DUH.

So now I am to the point of picking up the stitches at the heel flap. I'm not sure if I want to just give it a try on my own or wait until the next Knit Night. I will probably give it a whirl since I'm not sure if I can make it to this Tuesday's get together and there won't be another one until after Christmas.

I'll try to get a pic up later - gotta run as it's almost time for the Packer game!

GO PACK!

Thanks!

Thanks for your sock encouragement. :-) I wish it was just picking up the stitches at the gusset that was the only problem though. If it was, yes, I could just have someone show me how and hopefully I would get it (!) and move on with the sock. But there are several other wonky things before even getting to that. I don't even know how to explain it! There's a weird section of stitches at the base of the heel that aren't in the picture in the book; somehow it looks like there are more rows on one side of the heel flap than the other which I don't get if I was working back and forth, how that could happen; and then there are some extra stitches to the side of the heel turn that I don't think are supposed to be there. Also with those rows being off, I have no idea if I have the right number of rows in the heel flap or not. See it's just a mess! :-)

I hope to make it to tomorrow night's Knit Night and get a little help, at least figure out what went wrong and maybe I can try to fix it at home. Meanwhile I have a good start on my felted bag, am about 1/3 done with the dishcloth, and I FINISHED Lindsey's scarf. It's quite basic and could really use some fringe or something but it ain't happening! It's DONE and I never want to look at it again (except on my daughter). LOL It's nothing special and has a few little holes and mistakes, but it really was a good project for me just to get the hang of knitting and purling. It really did help me master purling, I even *like* to purl now.

I will try to get a picture of the scarf up in the next few days.

Sock Woes

I can't even begin to detail all my frustrations trying to knit my first pair of socks. But I'll tell you a little bit about it. :-)

First of all, huge thanks to Brandy who helped me move past the leg to the heel flap, at the last Knit Night I went to (a week ago yesterday, didn't make it last night because we went to our city's annual Christmas Parade, a tradition!). Finished the heel flap, went on to the next step, screwed up almost immediately. Due to not knowing how to fix it, and fatigue and frustration, I ripped out the whole heel flap and started over. And again, and again. Noticed a hole at the end of the leg I didn't notice before (the lifeline knot was in the way). At this point I'm not going back, I'll sew up the hole later when the socks are done. :-)

I'm pretty sure something was messed up before I started to turn the heel, but I pressed on anyway just in case it was okay. :-) Finished that, I get the concept of that no problem, it looks *almost* like it's supposed to, but something doesn't look quite right. So I think I may have messed something up, not sure! Now I have no idea how to pick up stitches along the side. I looked at various tutorials online but I still don't get it. I need someone to show me.

Here's my problem now. I have people who could help me. I have my new friends in my local knitting group. BUT, I fear there is just too much for someone to help me during Knit Night. I need to sit down with someone for, oh, probably 2 or more hours. I don't really have 2 hours to do that (I am swamped and Christmas coming doesn't help matters) AND I sure don't want to ask someone to take a few hours out of their own busy day to help me.

I feel stuck. There's nothing I can do right now. I think the socks might have to sit for awhile - weeks or months - and that BUMS ME OUT! I want so bad to figure this out and learn how to knit socks. I really think I am going to LOVE it once I know what I'm doing.

I do have some projects to work on while I wait to resume my sock knitting. I still haven't finished Lindsey's scarf (OY!) but I'm almost there. I started a ballband dishcloth a few weeks ago that has just been sitting. I also have yarn to make 2 different small felted purses (another new thing for me, can't wait to try it!) but I'm waiting on the needles I need to come from Knit Picks. Then there's the crocheted slippers I started last summer. I really don't want to abandon crocheting completely while I'm learning to knit. However knitting is priority for me right now.

So if you've made it this far, thanks for listening to my lament! I WILL get this, it just may be awhile.

Good night, Happy Thanksgiving, and......

GO PACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My socks!

I'm so sorry, I've been wanting to write a post about making my first pair of socks since I started them, but I've been either too tired or too unmotivated to write whenever I sit down at the computer!

I started them on Monday night, October 29 when the Packers played the Broncos (and of course the Packers won, woo hoo!). NOT such a good time to start my first pair of socks. First of all I found when knitting my gauge swatch and figuring out the Magic Loop method, and when I first started the socks, that it seems to me that the whole thing looks like one big mess until an inch or so of the sock is completed. And let me back up to say (and this may be dumb but what can I say) I was SO nervous to start these socks! AND I was not just nervous about starting the socks but as is typical for me, I was so nervous about the game! So my hands were shaking and I had this mess going on, and I didn't actually get much done that first night.

Since then I've worked on the socks for about 1/2 hour almost every night after the kids go to bed and I have about 40 rounds, and 6 inches of the leg done. I need to get about 1 more inch done before moving on to the next step. I've gotten comfortable knitting the leg (K3, P1 rib) but as I get closer to the heel I'm getting nervous again. I have no idea if I'll be able to figure it out or if the sock will fit or if I'll make a mistake I can't correct or whatever. I know, reminding myself what the Yarn Harlot said:

"Be afraid of skydiving. Be afraid of wild boar. Be fearless with knitting."

Here's a picture taken a few days ago. I've gotten a few more inches done since I took this pic. I'll post another picture once I move on to the heel.



I am still working on Lindsey's scarf! I don't work on it much. I could probably end it now, it's probably long enough. But I have it in my head I want it to be 50 inches and I'm about 6 or 7 inches short of that yet. I think it was such a good first project, just to get comfortable with knitting and purling, and not having to worry about mistakes. I've made a few, just kept going and didn't undo them, why bother. Who knows if she'll even wear it! It's really scratchy. I'm making it out of Red Heart Kids. Funny that almost all my crocheting was done with Red Heart yarn and I didn't mind it (I didn't really know about better yarns) but now that I'm knitting and I'm using a non-acrylic yarn for the socks, I realize how scratchy the RH is. I think it has it's place and I'm certainly no "yarn snob" but I don't think I'll be using it much anymore. Neither can I afford anything super expensive though!

Coming soon: More about my knitting podcast obsession, what I'm waiting on in the mail, and dreaming of future projects!