Out with the old ....

As I write this on a grayish summer day my feet are happy. Happy and warm …..They are also pretty, stripped, and soft. Well technically it is not my feet; it is Mr. Socks that are pretty, stripped, and soft. Nine days after the birth of Mr. Sock, Mr. Sock II came to this world on June 19^th at exactly the same time as his older brother 3:18PM. Weird coincidence!!!

I definitely enjoyed knitting socks. Enjoyed so much that my next project would be “Fluke” (click on the link to get the pdf pattern and see where the picture comes from), for my sister, made from the wonderful German “Fortissima Socka” (color #2048).

What would I have done differently? I definitely made first sock too loose. Socks in general should be knit tighter than other garments. Also I had to adjust the first sock (decrease and increase) and be careful when knitting the second one – I wanted the color-pattern to be identical. I would also follow the PDF pattern, because it has calculations, rather then casting on 60 sts without considering the tightness of my knitting and the circumference of my calves – I find that design on the back could benefit from a tighter fit.

While I was working on the second sock I crocheted yet another dishcloth. Now I have a set of 3 and still lots of yarn left – expect more dishcloth pictures in near future.

And finally, here is a sneak preview of my next project. I already have socks and some slippers, to go with, would be nice. I picked up bright blue yarn yesterday and started my knitting.

The color of yarn is much brighter and livelier in real life. It's "Galway" Irish worsted knitting wool in color # 5050 Oh, the pattern … I'll keep it a surprise for now!

Mr. Sock is almost done.

The knitting part is done; all I have left is to “sew it up”. I can’t wait to buy the tapestry needle, finish the sock, wash it, and see how it looks on my foot. It won’t be the first time I’ll be trying it on, but I think that washing will do it good and will make it even more attractive (by hiding all the irregularities and little “mistakes” in my knitting). All in all it was a lot of fun. I think I’ll be knitting lots of socks. I actually have a next project in mind, as soon as I’ll knit Mr. Sock the second.
I am a bit disappointed that I made couple of mistakes, but I hope that none of them will show. I am also disappointed with the lack of measurements on the pattern (not the pdf one but the one I had in my calendar); I planned to make the sock for Monkey Face (my sister), I even bought yarn with her color preference in mind, but 60 sts gave a diameter way too big for her leg. It’s actually a bit loose on my leg but I hope that washing will tighten it up just a bit. From now on I would make sure to get my dimensions and to use patterns that provide size measurements. By the way, my “mistakes” should be blamed on the lack of measurements: I had to decrease and increase in certain parts of the sock and it makes it looks uneven.

After finishing the sock, I decided to do a bit of crocheting. I got some multicolor cotton yarn on special at Zellers; it matches the orange I used for my dishcloth, so last night I crocheted the second dishcloth, using the same pattern but in different colors. I love this kind of no-brainer projects; since I don’t have to count my stitches every 2 seconds I can enjoy a good movie (last night it was “12” by Nikita Mikhalkov – Russian movie that was nominated for Oscar’s last year) and have a final item done by the end of it. I even managed to weave in the ends – impressive!!!

Let me tell you though, I am getting spoiled with good yarn. After using Regia sock yarn, I am so used to the thread slipping of my needle easily and almost knitting itself. The lower-quality cotton was hard to knit with and left my hands covered with orange fuss. Now I can see why some yarn costs 99c for skein, while other is 5$ for the same amount!

Patterns

I finally found the dishcloth pattern on the Coats and Clark website. For some reason mine is not as "fluffy" as the one on the picture. I got some orange and multicolored yarn and will crochet more of those in different color-combinations.

I also managed to take pictures of all the new and old unfinished knitting projects. I'll try to write a coherent blog-post and upload it later tonight. For now, here is a link to wonderful Stephanie Pearl-McPhee who is known in the knitters' world as Yarn Harlot.
Not only she is a knitter (a very fast one), she also has an amazing writing style, and manages to update her blog almost daily as well as write some knitting books. Oh yeah, she is Canadian.

P.S. click on the "button" to get to her blog.

First Steps

It all started after I heard the news that my very good friend (best childhood friend) in Tashkent gave birth to a baby girl. I decided that I have to send a little something for her, preferable hand-made. So I got some yarn and some hooks, and since I've been practicing crocheting for a little bit over a week, I started the baby carpet in extremely psychedelic color scheme (to tell you the truth, colors look rather tame on this photo):

After finishing the carpet, I wanted to continue crocheting, but make something smaller this time. I also wanted it to be useful and simple enough that if I would not get the design correctly I would still be able to use it. So the big winter sweater was out of the question, and I decided to crochet a dish cloth:
It was a fun and easy project and I decided to continue.
Next was this bright yellow purse that I now use to carry my current projects around:

After the blanket it was the biggest project so far. I really like the texture of the finished material and will probably use this stitch for something else in near future.

Finally, this morning I finished my hook case. I got 7 hooks as a Christmas gift and so far they've been stored in the empty chocolate box. Now they have a cozy home. This is how it looks from outside:

And inside it has room for 9 hooks:


The original case had buttons and would roll to "close". I am contemplating the idea of attaching some ribbons to mine, meanwhile I can just fol it in half to close and it actually stays closed!


I really hope that I would be able to find enough time to camp, cook, and crochet/knit. For now, while it is cold and rainy in Montreal, I'll keep knitting and crocheting!

P.S. The colors on the pictures are not as good as they are in real life. I definitely should start taking pictures during the day - daylight makes everything so much prettier!
P.P.S. I will post links and references to places where I got my patterns from very soon.