Good friends are amazing, good knitting friends…priceless

So, my friend M and I did the square a month afghan class together. During one of our last classes there, our teacher pulled out a book. An amazing, wonderful book, Annetarsia by Anne Berk. She figured out how to do intarsia in the round. Now, I am a huge fan of knitting in the round. Intarsia fascinates me, but I have not knit many things. I saw her designs though, and I just wanted to Have That Book.

It is fairly costly for me at this time, though worth it, it is almost a work of art in itself, so I put it in my "future things to have" list and went on my way.

M and I had dinner yesterday (it is more challenging to meet up now that we don't have the class once per month) and she BOUGHT ME THE BOOK!! It was for my birthday, though she was definitely off the birthday present hook because she is one of the people in on the sock club. I was bowled over and so very excited.

Of course, I now want to make almost everything in this book, but I will be refraining from doing so for now…only because I do not have the yarn or budget for the yarn. I am happy to report that some of the yarn needs are not too bad at all though, so possibly, I will be making one anyway. M will definitely get one of the shawls at some point. :)

So exciting!

Socks!

The Bridge Sock set is almost done. My pair are not started, but after knitting 3 pair, I can wait a few weeks to start mine. :)

A's pair is made with Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sock Candy in Ute Singer, a small batch made for Twisted in Portland. I snagged some and have made three projects with it. I LOVE Sock Candy and I hope they actually start making multicolor color ways again. I ended up doing a short row heel instead of a flap because I was not sure I would have enough yarn to do the flap. They still turned out so well.

A's Bridge Socks

M's pair is also made with Blue Moon Fiber Arts in a color way from the 2015 Rockin' Sock Club. The color way is Feeling Groovy.

M's Bridge Socks

E's socks are the only ones not made with Blue Moon yarn! They are made with Crystal Palace Bamboo yarn in Fall Herbs. Soft and lovely. I like how the colors pooled too.

E's Bridge Socks

Here is my new yarn from the Rockin' Sock Club too! I am not sure if I like the colors for myself, but one of the designs is a long cowl that looks really interesting. I think I will make it and then see if anyone of our little group just must have it. I can see A wearing it honestly. We'll see. I might love it when I knit it up and keep it for myself. :)

This is the Panoramic Stole in Madelinetosh Pashmina - Saffron. It is soft and flowing and I cannot wait to wear it! Collette is a model again. Oh the things my poor cat puts up with from me!

A. gave me an amigurumi kit for a crab for my birthday. I am going to make it and leave it somewhere on the coast. :) She and I would like to make several and yarn bomb our favorite places. If you end up on the Oregon coast and see a wee crocheted crab, it might just be one of ours!

I am also going to be trying my hand at crocodile stitch baby booties. If they look alright, I am going to potentially replace the knitted baby socks in my Baby Hot Feet warming sock kit, with those. They will look more interesting and maybe be more marketable.

That is it for now. I have four other projects in my queue. I am excited to work on them, though my hands have been giving me some issues, so things might be slow.

Catch up

I am the only one reading this blog I think, but it is still fun. Had some issues with logging in and life in general, so over a year absence is easy I guess. I have been very busy with knitting as it seems to be my way of recovering from med school. Those socks I posted in the last entry, that were not quite done, ended up going to a friend who then ceased to be my friend shortly thereafter (after 7 years). Painful, but I have been reminded often this year that there are people who stay in my life and certainly deserve the loving handmade knits that I love to give. :)

With that in mind, here are a bunch of pictures from the past year+.

These are the socks I knit for my little side business, Baby Hot Feet. I may be changing the style soon, but I sold a bunch at Christmas, and was pretty happy with that.

This is an amazing skull shawl pattern that I did for a friend of mine who loves skulls. I did them in bright colors to be reminiscent of sugar skulls. I love how this turned out and will probably be making another one someday. It is her first pattern in English, and I am not as good with crochet, so it is definitely doable. I loved making it.

These are skull socks made from the leftover yarn from the shawl, for the same person. They look amazing!!

This is a ripple blanket, also crochet, that my friend A sent a link to. I used a bunch of leftover sock yarn and got some solid colors to make a beautiful rainbow. The cat is my first kitty, Famile, who died in December. She actually peed on this blanket the day she died. I didn't mind though. My sweet girl. I love this picture of her.

This was a santa gift for a dear friend's son. He is obsessed with turtles and wanted a Hawksbill turtle plush toy that he saw. It was no longer being made and he said that what he liked most about it was that it was red. So his mom and I put our heads together, I altered the Sheldon Pattern, and Hawkie was born. :) His legs are actually knit like little flippers instead of the rounder legs of the Sheldon pattern

Then, my friend (of the sugar skull pattern) got the exciting news that she was going to be a grand aunt! They had discovered that the baby was going to have six toes per foot, and she thought that some wee six toed socks would make the mama laugh, so she asked me to make them. They are my own design and are not really functional, though the baby no longer has 12 toes now. :) The baby was also born on my birthday, which was really neat!

Another baby blanket from Steve Plummer and Pat Ashforth flew of the needles and cuddled around another wee one. I loved this pattern, though there was one mistake that I missed. Illusion knitting is really amazing, but can be easy to screw up if you aren't super careful. I highly recommend their site and patterns. They are incredible…I have three. :)

This bigger blanket was a square a month that my friend of the Hawkie fame and I did together. I didn't learn a lot of new techniques, though I did learn entrelac and backward knitting….so worth it, but I did learn some neat tricks and got a gorgeous blanket. I was the first to finish (not having much of a life allows for more knitting time) and am going to get some sort of prize. Someday. When I manage to get to the shop again. :) It is out of my neighborhood so I don't get there often. The class was really fun though and I am planning on taking the Great Aran Afghan one (2 years, 24 squares) in a couple of years. My parents received this for Christmas. It looks great in their home, though I did not pick out the colors for them initially. Guess my gut was on board with this one!

Finally some socks for me. Love them.

A super secret present for my best friend. Another ripple blanket and I kept it from her for four months. This was hard because she is who I go to to ask about color combinations and styling. It turned out more beautiful than I could have imagined and she was so happy with it. She is a crocheter and definitely understands the love and time that went into this present. 

I also joined the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock Club this year. I have wanted to do so for a long time, but never did. I convinced three friends to pitch in for a membership and I will be making them socks from some of the yarn this year. I am going to make all four of us a pair of these socks (59th Street Bridge pattern), though only one pair is from the sock club yarn (the one with the cat). I thought it would be neat for all of us to have a pair in different yarn and I love the pattern. I'll post the other two when I finish.

Now that I am caught up, I think, and it is super late, I should go home. Got laundry to do!

Giftmaking continues

It has been like Sockapalooza around here! I got the Tercel socks done. They were a pain as predicted, but turned out well. They are very tight going around my heel, but were fine going around my housemate's heel and K is between us in foot size, so I think they will be fine.

Here is the first sock enjoying some sun at the coast.

Sock done!

Scylla socks, they are for the female partner of the male recipient of the Charybdis (thank goodness spell check has that word....I misspell it every time) socks. I love how they turned out!

Here are the socks for the daughter of the person above. Using the same yarn (just like I did for the socks of their son) and another color. I really love how these turned out!

I haven't taken a picture of the finished product yet, but these socks are done in Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Socks That Rocks, color way Muddy Autumn Rainbow. I am having a hard time not keeping the socks for myself since the friend they are made for happens to have the same sized sock I do.... You can see the rainbow of the yarn here.

I managed to get the Muddy Autumn Rainbow IN a rainbow one afternoon! Pictures of the full socks later.

 These are the beginning of my next pair. My housemate's cat, Sam, posed with them for me. She even let me put her nose under the crossed needles, but I couldn't get a picture of it. She is a very chill cat. :)

I have completed 8 pair of socks for the project since late August. That is about a pair every 2 weeks. I have cut back on doing some of the ones I planned and switched one gift from a pair of socks to a Moebius scarf. So, one scarf, and 4-5 pair of socks to go...there may be some further changes. We'll see.

It has been nice to have specific goals. I still have to get yarn for 3 gifts though, and I'm not sure how I will manage that on my budget. I'll figure it out though!

Now, back to some work for the business. Hope anyone who reads this is having a great day!

Winter Holiday Projects

The Winter Holiday project progresses smoothly, if not quickly. I'm trying to go quickly, but since my knitting is just slow, quickly is relative. :)

Here are the Charybdis socks. I love how they turned out and my friend's trumpet vine was kind enough to be blooming for pictures a couple of weeks ago!

On Sunday, my friend K and I went to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby, OR. It was really nice, though very rainy so we only spent a couple of hours. When it is sunny, there are people outside knitting and spinning and with tents all around. Everyone was just crowded inside this time, which was frustrating.

Anyway, I got some yarn and a lovely gold/blue Pashmina scarf.

These will be socks for my friend M. I think it will do her good to have something handmade with love to wear on her feet. :)

These are for the friend I went to the festival with, K. She pointed out the yarn that she thought was cool as well as the colors she liked. It was perfect because I hadn't gotten yarn for her present yet. I had to get Lycra too. I may have to do these socks one at a time. That will be frustrating, but I think in the end they will be really lovely. :)

I already posted an in complete picture of the butterfly socks, but I thought I'd post the better picture I took recently. They are so lovely!!

My other obsession continues. I drew this Celtic knot that is supposed to combine Earth (green), Air (light blue), Fire (red), Water (dark blue). It turned out fairly well I think. I wish I could get more uniform color for the background.

Another Celtic knot. It is huge and I adore the pattern. I am going to try some different colors. There are twelve different strands. I used five colors for this one. These knots are completely engrossing. I love them.

I'm about a quarter of the way through the Scylla socks. I am liking how they are turning out so far. I'll use the leftover yarn from those, as well as another yarn to make socks for her daughter. I haven't figured out quite how they will look yet, but I am sure they will be amazing. :) I have patterns and/or yarn lined up for 5 more pair. :)

That's about it on this front. Business is chugging along and I am really looking forward to a quiet, energy building winter.

Sweater Weather is on it's way

Summer is coming to a close, and there is already a feel and smell of Autumn in the air. It makes me want to knit a big, soft, comfy sweater for myself. I know of two types of sweaters that I would love to make, but the cost for the yarn is too dear for me currently. I do have plans though, and they involve socks, mainly using up my tiny stash. Most of them will be going to friend and family for the winter holidays and I've already got 2 pair done! Not really that many, but I've not been up for knitting lately.

These are for me: a pair of pedicure socks so I can put oil on my feet and still paint my nails! I used some extra yarn I had and made them pretty short. They don't need to be perty.

These are the socks I made for myself (looking toward winter and the fact that my house shoes are flip flops) out of Madelinetosh, in Brother's Grimm. It is so lovely and soft. I love the subtle green mixed in with the black. I also love the name, as I love the tales and I lived in the Black Forest (Schwarzwald) for a while in college. These remind me of the dark beauty of that area. I used a modified twisted cable, but don't remember where I found it!

I need a new picture of this one because I didn't manage to get a picture of the full motif, which is a butterfly. These are for my housemate and I've already had her try them on without her knowing they are for her. :) She really likes them too, which is very gratifying! The yarn is a special dye lot of Sock Candy called Uke Singer from Twisted in Portland. My housemate is vegan and these are a cotton/elastic blend which I adore. I can't wait until Blue Moon starts doing more colors, specifically multicolored because this is, by far, my favorite non wool yarn for socks and I have two people who need it!

This yarn was a gift from a friend of mine who purchased it at a local alpaca ranch, Foothills Yarn and Fiber. She got one skein and I was not sure what to do with it. It would be perfect for super soft socks (I adore alpaca socks), but there didn't seem to be enough of it...until...I realized that my friend L. has size 5.5 feet and really loves these funky colors. Both ladies are friends as well, so it is like a double gift for L.! I decided to embroider the skull (yes, that is supposed to be a skull) as an afterthought because L. loves skulls. I think it turned out very well. One friend I showed it to thought it could be a monkey, skull, or space invader (before I told her what it was), so I was in the ballpark at least. :)

I am currently working on some socks for friends who are a couple. I am hoping to use the yarn I got for them to also make socks for their two kids. We'll see how that goes. I am using patterns called Scylla and Charybdis, because they can be pretty fierce about protecting their home and kiddos. They also appreciate literature and history. Oh, and the really cool patterns I wanted to use used up way too much yarn for my holiday budget. :) I think they will like it.

I have 16 more pair planned, but I may not do them all. We'll see. Mainly I want to make sure my family and close friends have their socks. :) I also have some baby blankets to get done for impending arrivals. It is good colder weather is on it's way because I have a lot of knitting to do!

Dark mark scarf pictures

Pictures of the scarf. It is so very subtle. I hope the recipient can actually see it. :) I think he will really love it. I did explain how it works too, so he didn't think I just sent him a scarf. 

Still working on the lace stole. I haven't wanted to knit or do anything at all the past few days. I have been knitting, but my heart hasn't been in it. There is so much I want to get done! So many things I HAVE to get done. I'd rather sleep, or visit a couple of people I miss.

Toodles.