Vickyd’s Knitty Thing

What is that sound you ask?  Why, that is the sound of me jumping on the bandwagon with this week’s yarn pr0n…

Yep, I gots me some Noro Kureyon Sock yarn! 

This is colorway S102 (whatever that means)…

All I know is that it’s purty and I can’t wait to knit with it.  I have already started my February socks so perhaps these are meant to be March socks!

Karen, the owner of my LYS, was showing me some wonderful cotton blend Noro she has on order…the great colors of Noro and the light wonderful feel of cotton!  Maybe I will buy enough to make a sweater to match my socks!

I have finished my January socks and most of my other projects are hibernating for one reason or another so today I present to you my only active WiP…

This is Koo Koo by Berroco and is my first entrelac project.  The yarn is Berroco Keltic which is 50% Wool, 40% Acrylic and 10% Rayon.  Now, before you go all crazy about the acrylic, let me say that although it is 40% acrylic this yarn has a great feel.  It is very soft and not so…acrylicy (is that a word?) 

The interesting thing about this yarn is that within the same ball of yarn, there are some major color changes…

This is Tartan

See what a pretty purple?  But Tartan is also this…

See…now it’s blue!  Now, if you look at the blocks on either side of the blue one above you can see the color variation in the Peat colorway…it goes from a terrific green to almost a tan with navy. 

I do like this yarn for this entrelac throw because the color changes make the finished project more interesting but I will say that I don’t think I would ever want to make a garment out of this yarn.  The color variations are just too much!

This FO is a long time coming…

• Pattern:  Monkey Socks by Cookie A.
• Yarn:  Koigu KPPM, colorway P81951
• Needles:  US 2 Addi Turbos
• Started:  June 2007
• Finished:  January 20th, 2008
• Mods:  I tried the Monkey pattern toe up and knitted the first one using 2 circulars and the second one using magic loop on US 2’s instead of US 1’s.  For the bind-off, I used Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind off. 

You see, I started these socks back in June 2007.  I had one pair of ankle socks under my belt and thought I could do anything so I decided to try toe up sock knitting and chose Monkey Socks as the pattern.  I figured that all I needed to do is knit the pattern from the last row to the first row and I would have perfect Monkey Socks…not so much.  As you can see, the pattern knitted backward does not create Monkey Socks (it may for some people, but not for me).  In my disappointment, I put these in time out for 6 months but they have been sitting in a rubbermaid bin, mocking me the entire time. 

I finally decided that even though they don’t look like Monkeys I still like them so I should just bite the bullet and finish the second sock…I finished the second sock in 3 days!  The Koigu is wonderful and I can honestly say that these socks really fit me the best of all of the socks I have knit. 

I know that I will eventually get around to knitting Monkey Socks from the cuff down, but in the meantime I will enjoy my “Upside Down Monkeys”.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful…

Ok, Ok…I know it isn’t much for you folks in the North, but for us Southern folk this does actually count as snow!  Actually, we have had snow twice in the last 3 days – I think it’s a record (if not, it should be).

I’m off to make a pot of soup and spend the day cuddled up in front of the fire knitting.  I can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday!

This week has been very busy with job searching and interviews (which is a good thing) so I am a little off on my posting this week.  Instead of showing some yarn pr0n today I decided to show my latest FO.  Hopefully, next week things will get back to normal.

I’m not someone who goes crazy with New Year’s resolutions but one thing that I REALLY want to try to do is to knit at least one pair of socks a month from my stash.   I realize that my stash certainly isn’t as large as some, but I do have a ton of sock yarn that I need to start using up before I can justify adding more to the collection.

Sooooooo, here are my January socks:

• Pattern:  Dublin Bay Socks by Ryan Morrissey
• Yarn:  Colinette Jitterbug, Monet colorway
• Needles:  US 2 Addi Lace Needles
• Started:  January 2nd, 2008
• Finished:  January 16th, 2008
• Mods:  There are many…although this pattern is very well written, I really like to knit my socks toe up and my latest obsession is toe up, 2 at a time, magic loop so that is what I did.  I only increased to 60 total stitches instead of 72 stitches because I was using US 2 needles.  I did do a heel flap as the pattern recommended but I changed the cuff to a 2×2 rib instead of 1×1.  I have large calves and I have found that 2×2 rib really helps socks fit me better.  I also tried a different bind off in the hopes that it would be a little more stretchy – this time, I did k2tog and slipped the stitch back on the left needle then kept on going from there.  The result is a very comfortable cuff. 

Overall, I would say that I really like these socks but the next time I knit with Jitterbug I will probably go down to either US 1 or US 1 1/2 needles to make them fit better (these are a little baggy). 

I still consider myself a novice sock knitter and I am definately getting better at it with each pair…now, to go stash diving for yarn for my February socks! 

Today’s yarn pr0n is in black and white…

This is Koigu KPPPM and the colorway is P312D. 

 I spotted this Tuesday at my LYS, The Whole Nine Yarns, and it was just what I was looking for.  Yarn diet?  What yarn diet?

I realized a while ago that I seem to be drawn to sock yarn in the blue and green family…and while I do love those colors, many times I end up with socks that I love but little to wear with them because my wardrobe is not swimming with those colors.  To be honest, I wear a lot of black when I am working and I have hardly any sock yarn that has black in it…I know, I know, black goes with everything but sometimes you just need something with less color, right? 

This yarn reminds me of old, classic movies…I love the combination of black, white and subtle shades of gray in this yarn and it will make a pair of socks that will definately get a lot of use!

What do you do when you have three skeins of Noro Silk Garden Lite that you bought just because you love the colors and it is begging you to make something out of it?  Well, first of all you look at Ravelry for some ideas.  You consider, and reject, socks because the thick and thin nature of the yarn will drive you crazy if you make socks.  Then, you decide on a scarf…after all, it was 15 degrees outside and although I have knit many a scarf I have never knit one for myself!

As one of my family members would say, “I yooked and I yooked” at scarf patterns, and I kept being drawn to Argosy but I wasn’t sure.  Is it too predictable for the yarn?  There are a ton of these on Ravelry (and many of them in the same colorway I had).  Should I just knit a multi-directional scarf?  I was torn…In the end, I just couldn’t get Argosy out of my head so here it is…

And the obligatory shot of the scarf modeled by moi…

• Pattern:  Argosy by Vyvyan Neel, Winter 2006 Knitty
• Yarn:  Noro Silk Garden Lite, Colorway 2014
• Needles:  US 6 Knitpicks Options
• Started:  January 3rd, 2008
• Finished:  January 8th, 2008
• Mods:  The only thing I changed about this pattern is that I used 3 skeins of yarn instead of 2 as the pattern calls for since I like my scarves long.

This pattern is great TV knitting – the pattern is so easy to memorize.  I wasn’t sure if I would like the Silk Garden Lite since I have heard mixed reviews but I really enjoyed knitting with it.  The color changes are amazing and the finished scarf softened up nicely after soaking and blocking.  This scarf is the perfect weight for me…not too thick and not too thin… I know that I will enjoy wearing it throughout the winter.

Today’s WiPs are pretty boring.  Other than the hibernating projects I have (which I am determined to finish this year), I only have two not very exciting projects on my needles.

The first (and most active project) is my Dublin Bay Socks.

The yarn is Colinette Jitterbug in the Monet colorway.  The colors pool a bit but I love all of the different colors and I am looking forward to starting the lace pattern on the leg.  As you can see, I am knitting these toe up, two at a time using magic loop.  This has really become my favorite way to knit socks….no SSS and no kitchenering the toes! 

The next project is the Mulberry Scarf.

While I think this will be a beautiful scarf when finished, the pattern is VERY boring so I am just working on it in spurts here and there.  This is a hard project to get a decent picture of – it looks much better blocked but I was just too lazy to do it this morning.  You might also notice a couple of markers on the scarf…those are some minor flaws that I will go back later and fix (translation…I found them when I was too far past…or too lazy…to tink back and I just decided to mark them and go back later to fix them).

I am planning to start another project (or two) over the next week so hopefully I will have something more interesting to show next week.

Tomorrow…Argosy!

Why do people feel that it is ok to jerk you around? 

I have been searching for a job and recently an opportunity kind of fell into my lap.  I went in and interviewed with the President of the company – I was very honest about what I was looking for and my salary requirements and the interview went really well (which is a HUGE thing for me because I have an anxiety disorder that makes interviewing very difficult).  It went so well that I received a call that afternoon to schedule a second interview with the person who would be my direct manager…I was a more nervous about this one because she has a reputation for being difficult, but when I met with her it couldn’t have been better.  We really got along great (had the same sense of humor, same work ethic, etc) and when I left she indicated that she was going to recommend that they hire me.  Her only concern was that this is a small company and there could be some issues relating to my salary requirements (which I had indicated were flexible).

Then, on Friday, I got a call from the President of the company asking me to come in this morning to talk about the job some more.  He said that he wanted to ”run a few ideas by me” relating to the job.  I thought about it all weekend and figured that he would most likely offer me the job but at a reduced salary – not something I was thrilled about but depending on the salary, it was probably do-able.

ANYWAY, I go in this morning and he tells me that given my salary requirements and the state of the economy he is worried that if he hires me he might have to eventually lay me off if he loses any of his larger customers so he has decided not to offer me the job!  He also wants me to periodically “keep in touch” just in case his customer base (or the economy) changes because then he would definately want to hire me.

ARGGGGGG!!!  He made me come into the office to tell me this?  He couldn’t just say it over the phone?  I just don’t understand why he wasted my time to come in for 2 extra meetings when he had no intention of hiring me!  I am really bummed about this because it would have been a great job – short commute, casual atmosphere, small family-oriented company. 

I guess it’s off to send out some more resumes…

This year my wonderful husband, Peter, went to my LYS and the lovely ladies at Strings & Sticks in Ellijay helped him pick out some wonderful presents for me…

A desk calendar…

A couple of books that I wanted…

A few odds and ends…

And (finally) some yarn…

This is Berroco Keltic, an Aran weight yarn that is 50% Wool, 40% Acrylic and 10% Rayon.  He bought me 11 balls in Tartan …

and 11 balls in Peat

And before you ask, yes there is already a project that this will be for…You see, I have always subscribed to the “jump in with both feet” approach to knitting and I wanted to learn Entrelac this year I figured why start with something small like a scarf.  Instead, I am going to knit Koo Koo from Berocco.  This will be a long-term project and is going to be for me so I’m not under any sort of a deadline.  My LYS is offering this pattern as a class and I had mentioned to the ladies that I was interested and even looked at colors and told them the ones that interested me.  What I didn’t know is that they went ahead and ordered the yarn for me and my wonderful hubby went and bought the yarn, pattern and paid for the class.  Yea!!!