may PSOTMC

so the seven dwarfs surfaced again:

eight months later, and i still don't have it logged into my rav stash.

seeing that april's sock pick was thrown back in the pond and i'm still slogging away with march goth sock (so much so that it threatened to jump into the falls), i think i'll keep this one, and cast on a vanilla sock.  i'm going to maryland sheep and wool this weekend and i'll need something to do in the car.

PSOTMC - april

here's this month's lucky pick for PSOTMC for april!

KP stroll in jay.  perfect soft sparkly blue.

unfortunately i'm still slogging on march's socks, so this one's going back into the stash pond.  

the toesies know

i bought a gym membership to the recently opened planet fitness.  as i dug out a pair of brand new sneakers (somehow i had the foresight to buy two pairs when i was at easy spirit years ago; i don't think the tretorns i got years ago at the vermont country store probably would cut it) i also had to find a pair of sport socks to wear with them.  i cannot remember the last time i bought a pair of store-bought socks.  i've knit my own socks for 5 years now.

as i slid my feet into the pair of pilled peddies i cringed - it was like pulling on a piece of sand paper.  i'm not sure if it's becos of the neuropathy in my feet (from my sucky sugars) or the fact that my feet have become accustomed to hand knit socks.  i walked around in my new sneakers and crummy socks and wished there was a way i could wear cashmere socks instead.



now, those peddies are lord knows how old, so they need replaced (a trip to Dick's is on order for me anyway).  i know there are fancy sport socks out there for wicking away sweat.  too bad i can't do the treadmill in my bare feet.  or a pair of crocs or birks.


on the topic of toes...i bombed my february PSOTMC goal.  i got carried away with my mystery shawl and freddie's owlet and the boy's fish hat that it fell by the wayside.  (i secretly think it wants to be something else anyway.)

but i march forth (har har) and picked a new bag for march PSOTMC.  i got felici in goth on sale last summer - no clue why it's not in my rav stash.

i ran the skeins so i can get matching stripes.  so far all i have is a cuff.  the boy has chorale practices in the coming weeks so i want something simple to knit on.

PSOTMC - february

i'm behind (story of my life as of late) but it's this month's pick for PSOTMC:


i got this yarn from my knit buddy kristin last year for my birthday.  it's my first skein of socks that rock in kalish.  my knit buddy, she's got awesome taste.

now to find a pattern worthy of it...

freddie's socks - PSOTMC for january

these are freddie's socks. for small socks, they took forever to finish.  i completed one sock weeks ago but got side tracked by the mystery shawl KAL and my mittens, and finished these up last week.

these socks were knit with froehlich wolle sedrun in red/blue tweed, with navy heels and toes.  the yarn is more sport weight and i didn't think there'd be enough yarn for both socks, hence the blue heels and toes.

i learned a lesson with this pair - knit them at the same time!  see how one sock is bigger than the other?



i knit the cuff on a size 3. from there, the details are sketchy.  when i picked up the second sock i kept knitting with the 3 when i was supposed to switch to a smaller needle for the stockinette stitch.  gauge with the size 3 made the sock too big so i ripped back to the cuff and went down to a 1.5.   those needles made the knit WAY tighter in gauge (yep, it took knitting the heel to show me that something was wrong)!  ripped back to the cuff again, started knitting with a size two (which was attached to another pair of socks!) but the sock still looked small.  not sure if my gauge was loose for the first sock or too tight for the second one but the lesson learned - note the details when casting on!  i usually add my project to ravelry when i start it but for some reason i missed this one.

this is a nice yarn to work with.  i have a ton of it left from last summer's yarn binge (it was $2.50 a skein, can't beat that!) so that's probably a good thing!

ready, set, knit!

it's january and it's a new start for PSOTMC 2012!

my first "pick" of the year is froehlich wolle sedrun in navy/red tweed and a navy.  i'm thinking socks for freddie, as i didn't make him socks yet.  i don't think i'll have enough yarn for a pair for me.  tweed sock with navy heel and toes.  sound good?  small, simple and enough to kick of the sock slugfest i've been feeling lately.

it's also NaKniMitMo!  i just have to knit these:



becos it reminds me of these:

the mittens are similar to the ally mcbeal mittens!

as if i didn't have enough on my plate, i signed up for a mystery shawl KAL in this group.  the pattern will have beads or nupps, both skills i would like to learn.

i also have a bunch of WIPs (now UFOs?) hanging in my basket.  when i'm going to get this knitting done is anyone's guess.

what knitting goals do you have this year?  

better late than never!

finally finished my march PSOTMC socks!

ravel'd here...sunday swing socks.  knit on size 1.5 DPNs with claudia's hand painted in boot camp, i completed sock #1 in march, and the cuff of #2 languished until a few weeks ago, when i realized i had to knit grams a pair of socks for christmas, and i didn't want to knit something for scratch.  i knit the medium size (64 stitches) but probably should have knit with 56 stitches, becos the sock is rather loose.  grams will wear these with her bedroom slippers, so it shouldn't be a big deal.  (i think, when i finished the first sock, i probably planned to give these socks to my mom, who has bigger feet than me or grams.  oh well.)

i want to knit another pair of these.  it's an awesome simple pattern.

planning PSOTMC 2012

i didn't do so well with PSOTMC this year.

i completed three pairs of socks (january, february, october's from last year and a pair of fingerless mitts).  i have three pairs on the needles that need to be completed.  more yarn that was thrown back into the stash pond becos i either didn't know what to do with it or was still plugging away on another pair.  i lost a lot of knitting mojo due to illness/stress, and WIP ADHD has bit me on the butt more times than i care to admit (just ask me when i last knit a hexipuff?)

the beauty of having my own sock of the month club is that i get to make up the rules.  i tried to make one pair a month.  i started out strong, but petered out as the year wore on.  perhaps i should shoot for a pair every two months.  a lot of knitters did that and made out great - think it'll work for me?

nevertheless, i have more dreams than common sense.  i pulled more yarn for PSOTMC12.  behold:

of all this yarn, the brown skein is the oldest in the stash (and it has bad juju i think; i tried to knit a pair of socks with it a couple years ago and got stuck).  the rest is yarn i purchased this year (some knit picks, the german yarn from knitters underground, a skein of STR from knitting kris).  my hope for the german yarn is to make socks for my family.  the rest - who knows.

all bagged (most of the bags were left over from this year; a couple from the paper ware cupboard, so they are truly recycled brown bags) and waiting for serendipity:



the marked bag contains this month's pick.  i probably won't pick it for december - i'll save it for next year.  there are 13 bags of yarn.  baker's dozen or one to grow on, you know?

i bagged in the kitchen and threw the bags on the floor in the craft room (how's that for random?) then put them in the cubby:



here's to PSOTMC 2012!

PSOTMC november

i should have picked this for october.  or else save it for december.

ainsley yarns merino superwash sport weight in "nightmare before christmas".  the picture makes the colors look more vivid while they really appear more muted "bruised" pallet.

i so want to do something with this yarn.  not socks; maybe a shawl.  also considered a pair of gauntlets as my hands are cold now that the winter months are setting in.  but i have a few socks OTN that i need to complete, a few shawls as well.  i'm trying to find a quick and dirty gauntlet pattern becos i want gauntlets NOW and don't want to use fiddly needles to knit with.

i don't think i did so well, this personal sock of the month club gig.  but i'll talk about that next month.

petunia's socks - september PSOTMC

i finally finished a pair of socks for my PSOTMC!  meet petunia's socks:

plain vanilla socks knit with claudia hand painted in red wagon with size 1.5 needles.  the first sock flew off the needles in a matter of days.  the second one languished through my weeks of sick (which killed the knitting mojo a little bit) and the weeks of hell inbetween.  cranked on the second sock so i could get something finished!  i have no idear why it would take so long to knit on one little sock, but there it is.

petunia loved her first sock weeks ago.  i think she would have worn it as is.  when i put both socks on her, she pitched a holy fit.  or maybe she was mad becos i took off her abby cadabby socks (from the target dollar bins, no less!) and her sparkly kicks!

so much for the cutesy "lookit i made my girl her first pair of real socks!"

picked october's choice - these are going to be a pair of socks for grams for xmas:

wish 'em luck!

PSOTMC - september

PSOTMC perseveres on...here's september's pick:



it's claudia hand painted yarns in fingering weight.  color wave is red wagon.  strangely, i don't have it listed in my rav stash (not sure how that happened).  it's one of the first hanks of sock yarn i ever bought - i got it at mad about ewes several years ago.

i think i'm going to knit a pair of socks for petunia with it.  i only have one skein - i don't think it's enough for a pair of socks for me, and i think the color is more her than me.

august PSOTMC

this month's offering for august's PSOTMC:



odd.  i don't have this in my rav stash.  however, it's KP's fascination in seven dwarfs.  i got it a couple years ago and it's a good example of a classic hoard.  i love the colors, love the squooshiness of the yarn but held onto it for who knows why.  it was a good candidate for my PSOTMC.  sigh

since i'm working on freddie's sweater (for fair exhibition) and getting things ready (for fair exhibition), i don't have time to work on socks (and i still have 2 ruddy pairs still outstanding!  they really should get attention dibs first).

sigh  maybe when life calms down some (i wish i knew when that would be), this yarn will finally see the light of day and become a lovely pair of socks.

PSOTMC for july

who am i kidding?  i'm not going to knit this up this month:

it's schoeller +stahl fortissima colori disco socka (rav linky).  apparently it's also discontinued.  that doesn't surprise me - i think it's one of the first skeins of sock yarn i ever bought (the shop where i bought it went out of business years ago).  once upon a time i had two skeins of this yarn, becos i forgot i bought a skein and got another becos i liked the colors and the sparkly.  i swapped the extra skein 2 years ago.



to date, i've made little progress on my PSOTMC.  i have maybe half a leg on june's pick.  i have leg ribbing on a second sunday swing (from march).  and april and may's picks were busts.  i should finish those other pairs of socks before i start a new pair.  therefore, disco goes back into the "yarn pond".



i think i need to reconsider my "rules" for my PSOTMC.  i started my club last september, and i'm coming up to my anniversary.  i planned to knit a pair of socks a month.  unfortunately, life aka the kids has a way of interrupting things, and i just didn't get done, the things i wanted to do.

the beauty of doing a personal sock of the month club, with stash yarn, is that there are no rules but the ones you set for yourself.  maybe i need to tweak my own rules.  some knitters, either becos of speed or the busyness of their lives, chose to knit a pair of socks every 2 months.  some are knitting quarterly socks.    i think a pair every couple of months is more realistic for me, and should i finish a pair before the end of the month, i can always start a new pair.  no knitting police patrolling my neighborhood (at least, i don't think they are).  

June 2011 PSOTMC

this is june's pick for PSOTMC:



schoppel wolle crazy zauberball (rav linky) in colorway 1507.  i loved the teal, burgundy and grey colors in it.

i didn't know what to do with this yarn.  i considered it one of my "special" yarns and wanted do something "special" with it.  a look-see at the projects gallery on ravelry showed a variety of projects - lots of shawls and socks.  i wanted to make a pair of socks, obviously, but didn't want to make a pair of plain old vanilla ones.

after a bit of searching, i decided that i'd make striped socks with zauberball.  but, do i make the stripes with opposite ends of the ball (which would mean i'd have to wind it into a cake which i really didn't want to do becos i loved the orbyness of the ball) or alternate the stripes with a solid yarn?  i had a couple skeins of plain yarn, and did a little experiment:

i had skeins of brown sheep lambs pride superwash sport (rav linky) in charcoal grey or sable brown.  the zauberball has a bit of brown and grey in it, so i did a little test swatch:




the grey won out becos it brightened up the zauberball, while the brown seemed a bit muddy.

now i have to figure out how to knit stripes!  i need to think about how to knit the stripes, without jogs.  i want to carry the unused yarn along the way becos i don't want to cut the yarns and have dozens of ends to weave in.  i also don't want to make a blister-creating ridge in the foot.  this is my PSOTMC challenge!

sprechen sie socke? PSOTMC for october/may

remember these socks?



i started these way back in october for my newly hatched PSOTMC.  i bought this yarn at the mannings three years ago as part of my "ani" stash and thought it was appropriate for "octoberfest".  or maybe that should be "socktoberfest"!

sprechen sie socke? (rav linky)
yarn:  schoeller-stahl fortissima colori socka color in 2006 german flag
needle size:  1.5/2.5mm
pattern:  plain vanilla sock with short row heel (!!)

after finishing the second sock i frogged the toe of the first sock, becos the foot was short.  that was my challenge with this pair:



as with the second sock, i extended the first foot by one stripe and ended with black toes.  now they fit!  :)



i also worked hard to match the stripes up.  i think i did a decent job matching them up - i may be off by a row or two, but they look pretty matchy to me.



yay!  one more WIP/UFO done!  now to dig through the basket...

april's PSOTMC - pixie chic wristwarmers

i knocked of april's installment of PSOTMC in a few days (in may,  no less!)  these are pixie-chic wristwarmers (rav linky).  the pattern's a few years' old, one i culled from simply knitting.  the yarn is pingouin tweed, which i got up in saratoga springs many moons ago.  these were knit up on size 4 needles.


not sure how i feel about them.  they are a bit loose and they ride up.


they look lovely tho.  the yarn has a lovely green sheen, and has a sassy bright slub.


thumbs up on the color.


thumbs down on the fit.

come fall, they may be destined for the frog pond.


oh well, the journey was fun...

may PSOTMC pick

i think it's koigu.  i got this skein at KDO last year.  it was wrapped up like a lollypop.  i loved the avocado, coral, turquoise and brown hues and i snatched it up.  i had to buy a pattern along with it (don't ask why) but i figured i'd make the yarn into a pair of socks.

i showed the yarn to my knitty friend the other night and she too loved the colors - but questioned if there was enough yarn for a pair of socks.  good point.  how about a pair of fingerless mitts, or a small scarf/shawl?

part of me doesn't even want to knit it up.  doesn't that look like a scrumptious piece of sushi?  i.  love.  those.  colors.  

april PSOTMC - late, but not FAIL

i almost wrote this post with a picture showing just my yarn pick for april's installment of my PSOTMC.  i thought april was going to be a big FAIL.  a lot can happen in a day - look!



socks for the hand!

i posted last month that this yarn didn't lend itself to a pair of socks - i had 2 small skeins, probably not enough for a sock a piece.  the yarn was more DK weight than fingering, and it was a rough tweed, not quite right for my pampered sensitive tootsies.  i thought i would do a pair of fingerless mitts and even set off and knitted one up (designed by me!) but it was huge and shapeless.  into the frog pond it went, and the cakes of yarn sat in time out in their brown lunch sack.

after slogging through the log cabin baby blanket all month, my eyes crossing from all the garter stitch, i decided that enough was enough and it was time for the blanket to go on time out.  it wouldn't be done in time for the baby shower, my cousin isn't due for another month, and i needed to knit something quick and dirty to give me some self worth.

while digging around for a pattern that went with may's PSOTMC pick (more on that in a future post) i found this pattern for the mitts.  the pattern is pixie chic wristwarmers from a back issue of simply knitting.  the yarns were nearly identical (penguin is to rowan, yeah right!) and i remembered how much i liked the pattern, so i grabbed it and cast on with glee.  i cranked on that mitt all evening and finished up by bedtime.

the finished product calls for buttons sewed to the backs of the mitts.  i need to dig around in my button jars for something.  

i feel a bit weird that i knit mitts instead of socks for my PSOTMC, but as there are no knitting police enforcing any kind of rule, i'm going for it.  it's fun to knit outside of the box sometimes!  

PSOTMC - april's pick

i barely have a cuff on sock #2 of march's PSOTMC, but that didn't stop me from pulling this month's lucky pick:



this is the yarn i hoped to pull in march.  how funny i'd get it for april!

this is tweed by pingouin (penguin).  i got it in saratoga springs several years ago.  it languished in sock yarn limbo until i liberated it.  when i looked it up on my rav stash, i didn't even have a link for it.  i had to dig quite a bit until i found an appropriate linky.  i learned a couple things - apparently my yarn has been discontinued - and it's also apparently difficult to find in the states.

it's a thicker yarn - worsted weight - and i only have 2 skeins of it, so i'll have to get creative with this one!  i don't think i'll be able to make socks with this yarn, but perhaps i can squeak out a pair of fingerless mitts.

maybe it's kismet i pulled this yarn.  it shouldn't take too much time to knit a pair of worsted weight mitts.  and i can use the extra month for my march socks.  

and the pick for march PMSOTMC is...

...claudia hand painted yarn in sport weight, color wave "boot camp".  i bought this yarn at rosie's yarn cellar a few years back.  when i was picking yarns for this year's PSOTMC, i found it buried with yarns from KP.  i thought it was time it saw the light of day.

i was secretly hoping i'd pick a green skein for march (there's another bag containing green yarn as well).  i wanted to knit something green for st. paddy's day.  this one totally fits the bill.  serendipity at it's finest.  :)

a search on ravelry's FOs with this particular yarn came up short on anything i wanted to knit.  several knitters from SISC knitted sunday swing socks and i thought the pattern would work with this yarn.  it has a lace chart, but not too difficult to follow, the pattern is spicy enough to keep me interested but easy enough to be mindless.