it aint nothin' but a sock thang, baby! aka- i'm an OG of sock knitting!

i was so jealous when i first started knitting of people who could knit socks, and this before i knew there was an ENTIRE sock knitting movement!!! i had never seen ANYONE knit on dpns, but i heard they were not for the intrepid knitter, and they were semi-hard to master. so i pined away longing for the day i could learn, until one day i decided to look it up online. i felt like i was looking up knitting porn!!! i found a tutorial through google *wish i could remember where it was, but this was a couple of years ago!* that explained it, and then at the bottom there was pictures!! upon laying my eyes on those pictures i gave up hope! i thought there was no way i could do it without years more experience! the printed-off pages sat in my knitting note book for a while, when one day i decided to just do it. *this is a theme in my crafting life, i force myself to do something i thought i never could, and sometimes it actually turns out ok, other times, i end up with yarn/fiber everywhere, sitting in a pile around me, exasperated* all i can say, is this must have been god's gift to knitters! whoever wrote this tutorial did in such a way that it was actually understandable!!! and the pictures!! i don't think i could have done it without the pictures! before i had seen them, thinking to myself "knitting with 4/5 DOUBLE ENDED (!) knitting needles at ONE TIME!!!" who tortures themselves that much? but when i saw the dpns with knitting on them, held together all in a neat little square, it clicked, and it seemed so easy! the concept all the sudden made sense! and after my first pair of successful socks, i was hooked like morphine in my IV.... it was life changing!

amongst many other things going on right now, i'm steadily working on kyndra's socks, although they have become such a pain in the arse and i haven't even finished the second sock yet! oy- how frustrating. there have been many bad sizing issues. i think what's happened *although, of course, i didn't figure this out until probably half way through* was that because the patterns i was pulling elements from all adult patterns and then plugging in my gauge instead, the instructions for "knit until piece measure measures two inches less than desired..." were shorter than two inches, because instead of decreasing a ton of stitches, i have only 28 in the entire sock, so it was many less rounds, making my elements about an inch, instead 2 to 2 and a half inches. so now at least i know why i frogged probably 5 socks now that were way too short for her, and now that i know, i can fix it! ;) for this reason i wish they were toe up, so i could try them on her much easier, and then i wouldn't have any length issues to begin with... oh well! i've learned my lesson, as soon as i get my transfer from my paypal i'm ordering the book sensational knitted socks! i'm really excited, from what i've read it's supposed to be, like, the best and only sock book you'll ever need! it's sort of like the twisted sister's sock workbook, except for the fact that it DOES actually give you sock recipes where you can alter the pattern to your heart's desire (see the previous post), and tons of stitch patterns to customize the look! i can't wait! i hope it's as good as it sounds! i did debate getting the sequel book (MORE sensational knitted socks... DUH!!) because it says it gives instructions for 4 and 5 dpns, magic loop sock method, toe up and cuff down, for ALL the patterns, where number one doesn't, plus OODLES more stitch patterns to complement the first. but i figure, if i like the first one that much, i'll get the second one later!

Quaint in the country

so, today, the knight in not-so-shining armor is standing guard over my posting! have i lost my mind? not sure. read on to decide.......

yesterday, i got a much anticipated break. my grandmother, mom, sister and I all had lunch together. no kids allowed. i really needed it, too! a little breather, a rest from the chaos. time to refocus.

only a couple of blocks away from my house, there is a quaint little house-turned-restaurant called Queen B's. the people who own it are from england, and so, the entire menu is traditional english-style food, high tea, cucumber sandwiches, scones, and trays of dainties *which i'd never heard of before, but they're the cutest, and most delicious little mini-pastries i've seen!* you are even welcome to wear a very snooty high-class hat and feather boa. not really my style, but the women of my family love it so much, i indulge them, and the food is pretty good. the ambiance is like that of a spa, twinkling nature music, soft voices.... and my ears can always use the break. it's also part antique store, the walls are lined with shelves and antique buffets, and then vintage paintings, pictures, mirrors ,anything imaginable going all the way up to the ceiling. the shelves and buffets are packed with hundreds of tea sets of any kind imaginable. old, new, vintage, kitschy 70's crap, princess diana and prince charles commemorative sets, a whole collection of salt and pepper shakers and costume jewelry. it's pretty cool to look at them. so much eye candy, i love to just look around in that place. it's part of their "charm".

front-view of Queen B's

in other, less english news, i have almost finished the second sock i've been knitting for kyndra. i'm not sure it qualifies as a second sock, really. i kind of hated the first one, and it didn't fit well at all, so i started a second one, one size smaller and with a 1x1 rib instead 2x2 to see if it would fit and look better. so i guess this is more of a sizing experiment! i can whole-heartedly say, i love the way it looks, and i'm thinking *and crossing my fingers* that it will fit better! i wish i could've used a pattern for these, and i tried on the first sock, using the "socks at any gauge" article in spin off, can't remember what issue, and don't have it handy. but, as it turns out, A-i didn't like it *not for a baby sock, anyway, it would be great for me however!* and B-it was a little confusing once i got to the gusset decreasing. so i turned to my twisted sisters sock workbook for help. i found a much better written *or just better, i'm not sure* way to do a gusset, and toe shaping, too. so i just made my own way! what a surprise... but it actually worked really well, i was even able to do it again for the second sock! and now, all that's left is a kitchner stitch bind off!

i have actually been wanting to talk about that book since i knitted my first pair of socks from it. but that was before my blog, and i convinced myself not to bore my husband with the gory sock knitting details! so here's my chance, and i'm stepping on the soap box!!

i wanted to order the twisted sister's sock workbook ever since i heard of it. as a beginning knitter, i desperately wanted to learn how to knit socks. and then, once i became a spinner, i REALLY wanted it, as half the book is about spinning and dyeing, too! killing two birds.... before ordering it on amazon, i read some of the reviews, as i usually do. most were good, but then there was one that stood out most in my mind. to my horror, a girl had ordered, anxiously awaited it's arrival, and then once she got it and started knitting from a pattern, she became really confused. convinced it was her beginning pattern reading skills, she took the book and WIP to her mother who had been knitting for like 20 years or something. and not even her mother could figure out this damn thing. she said it was horrible, don't get it, blah blah. i was devastated. but, being that i don't give up on something once my mind is set, i ordered it anyways.

i immediately began trying to knit a pair of handspun socks, after dyeing my first Kool-aid merino roving and navajo plying the yarn. i found it was written in a way that was hard to understand, but not as bad as this girl had thought it to be. and i had only been knitting a year, give or take a couple of weeks. i was overjoyed i didn't find it as misserable as her.

but the ultimate point of this book is to enable you to knit socks with almost ANY handspun, at any gauge. and this is the part i found terribly dissapointing. there are two actual "patterns" in the book, one toe up, one toe down, but they are given as very strict patterns, such as: this fits a women's medium size foot, cast on this many stitches, and so on, WITHOUT ANY intructions as to how to customize this to fit ANY size foot *man, women, or child* or how to plug in certain stitch patterns. although, it is to be said, there are a number of different cast ons, rib patterns, different heel and toe patterns, and bind offs *if there are a little limited*. only now have, after more than a year of knitting, have i really "gotten" the concept of interchanging different elements in a sock pattern, because, even without instruction, these things DO come with time. but for those of us who DON'T want to wait, it can be a big let down.

now, don't get me wrong, there are a number of handy features included in the pages of this book. some that i refer to recently while knitting custom socks are the gauge chart, there is a very helpful page on how and where to measure your foot for knitting custom socks, and a chart that tells you how many stitches to cast on for your particular yarn gauge and foot measurements.

and lastly, the thing i found most inspiring about this book was the pictures of all the socks, knit from hand dyed and handspun yarn. the photography is beautiful and everytime i pick up the book for a new project, or need inspiration for dyeing i will longingly browse the book. but if you're ONLY looking for a book to teach you how to knit ANY sock, with ANY yarn, i don't think that this book is worth the price of admission, and you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

melancholy

today i got a couple of hours to myself with no little monsters to look after. it was very nice to get a break as we don't have anyone who watches our kids for us... NO ONE. sure, i may get out of the house without a monster on the rare occasion, but the hubby is at home with them, and vice versa. so as anyone with kids can imagine, i get a little run down. not that i'm saying i don't love my kids or anything, you get used to it, really. but being in my OWN house with time to myself, it never happens and it was nice.

the first thing i ABSOLUTELY had to do was take a shower, these hot texas days are really kicking my ass. but after that, the rest of my time was spent in front of my spinning wheel! :)

but then what was supposed to be my happy time, turned into me being depressed about not having time to devote to my spinning. my etsy store has only four yarns left, the latest being the super kid mohair yarn, and that was FOREVER ago. i wanna be one of those AMAZING spinners that grace the message boards with their beautiful work every week. it's so inspirational. and they have like, 5 new yarns a week, and that's only what they've finished, not counting the yarn on the bobbin still and all the prep work it takes, and i'm thinking, seriously, HOW DO THEY DO IT?!?! i want to be that productive! i want to spin that much! that's what really gets me down, i just want to be able to put that many skeins out at a time. and people say it will get better as the kids get older, and i know it will. hell, my son will be enrolling in pre-k this august. it's only three hours a day, but it's still "he's going to school" and then my other half is thinking "what's going to happen when DOES go? what will i do?" i don't even want to think about him going full time and then when my daughter goes to school? god, the way this economy is going, by the time they are in school, i'll probably have to get TWO damn jobs!

which, thank god, brings me to my next topic, no more wallowing and lamenting.

the economy in today's day and age, is a direct link to the earth, in my opinion. i get physically ill every time i hear about the gas prices going up. i may not be the most educated about what goes on in the world today, and the things that are the biggest factors in the literal disintegration of our planet, but i know enough to be scared, and i know enough to realize that it's happening. and i think everybody does, politicians and the us government may not WANT to say it's happening, but they know it is. and it is devastating to know that virtually NOTHING is being put into action to try and help the situation. i literally can't even think about most days because i always end up just feeling helpless, like there's nothing I can do to help out. i mean, i turn the light out when i leave a room, we've switched to those energy saving light bulbs, but come on!!! that's not helping all that much.


on to the point:i didn't mention this on the blog yet, but a while back, i ordered some ugly batts from high prairie fibers, now i'm aware that most people are not going to know what an ugly batt is, check the link. these monsters are AWESOME!!!! A FULL POUND of left over and orphan fibers, carded into ONE GINORMI BATT!!! this being my first experience with these phenomenas, i didn't really know what to expect, but i'd heard great things! being a little late to get in on the newest batch, there were some slim pickins *the "pretty colors" go first, COME ON PEOPLE, THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE U-G-L-Y!!!* so i very excitedly snatched up two grayish looking batts.

these are the most foreboding batts EVER!!

but when i opened the box they came in, two bags stuffed full of fiber came spewing forth at me. upon inspection, these batts have every type of fiber anyone could dream to have on hand, coarse, hairy salt-and-pepper-style wool, down-type brown wool, every-color-in-between wool, white-as-snow alpaca! you literally never what's next, with each draft you discover something new! it's the ultimate, edge-of-your-seat spinning kind of batt!

the batt on the right of the 1st picture: this is the more mellow of the two

but the one that spoke to me instantaneously was the left one, it is sprinkled and striped in flame red, grass green, some shade of tanish-yellow, primary blue, and some pure white. i knew what it was.... it was the earth dieing. it is her swan song. i felt the pull to spin some right then and there, no plan, just spinning. i pulled off a hand-sized chunk, and watched with the amazement of a child, the colors flow through my hands like the wind coursing through the grand canyon, like the wide open plains of east texas,like the sun barely kissing a sleeping baby on the cheek, like the crashing and violent waves of a tsunami, like far away land soaked with the blood of men, dieing in vain. and so, this yarn is my statement.

this is a great cross-section of the earth's destruction batt, although it doesn't have that much teal in it, only on this one side. it has much more green

this is a great cross-section of the colors, you can see the green, bright blue and the tan/sandy colors better here

this will be the first yarn from this batt of a planned series.

YAY- lots of fibery goodness!!!

well, first off, i do have something blog-related to announce. although it has been my intention to give updates every couple of days, it just hasn't worked out that way. i've been a little busier lately than usual, and i really don't have too much computer time *along with family time, fiber time, me time...etc* to fit in too many posts. so i have decided to scale down *a LITTLE bit* and have decided to try to blog weekly, maybe more if i have time! besides, that's about what i've been averaging anyway!

on to happier news! a big hunk of thursday through the beginning of this week was spent trying to prepare for my first craftster SWAP; fiber of the month swap (may)! i was so excited and slightly nervous, it being my first time and all! so i was super-absorbed trying to find stuff i already had in my stash to send to a partner with an entirely new set of likes and dislikes, it wasn't too hard, but i really strive to please! so of course i forgot to take pictures of everything i sent her, i'll see if i can get some pics from her, but until then, here's a gallery for the may swap, everyone's pic should start popping up everywhere, bc the SEND OUT deadline was only yesterday, but there were some early birds! uh humm ;)

ANYWAYS- swappers fill out a few questions about what they like/ don't want, favorite colors, allergies and whatnot, and hers said her favorite color is green, and she really didn't care WHAT she got, as long as it was fiber!! what i sent her, and she should've gotten it today bc we sent out the same day, was a silk cap I DYED... oh yeah, all by myself! *some of us may remember dye pot anarchy* and it was beautiful!!! not a disaster! i used turqoise, ELECTRIC blue, goldenrod, canary yellow, and emerald green. so i REALLY hope she enjoys it, bc it was my first EVER successful dye, and i used acid dyes! i also sent some carded batts: 2 black/white wool *the roving i got from sheep shed studios!!!* and one white wool base both carded with the AMAZING sari silk i got from wool peddler (i tried to use LOTS of greens! :D) some tencel, white icicle and a few locks of mohair. and finally, i sent a ziplock baggie FULL of the same mohair locks in grass and neon green, yellow, and a few in varied other colors, but i tried to stick mostly to her green! i hope she likes it! i sent lots of different stuff, not intended to necessarily go together, mostly just to play with, or add to some of her other projects!

now in knitting news: tonight i watched the season premier of so you think you can dance while frogging the onesie i was supposed to knit my daughter for WINTER!!! *sorry honey, mommy really does love you!* and YES, i do watch cheesy tv shows, i'm a stay at home for crying out loud, the tv is always on, and i watch practically EVERY show presently on the air! but it hit me like a ton of bricks the other day, an idea to frog the onesie, and use the yarn to make her a little tunic/shirt. i've got pink and brown, so i'll do the chest in one color, and the bottom in the other. i want it to be close to the body on top, and then drape away on the bottom, i have an idea of HOW i'll do it, which i'll start explaining once i start doing it. but i'm expecting it to be SUPER-freakin cute! i took her chest measurement before she went to bed tonight, but doubt i'll cast on till tomorrow, i always spin at night, knit during the day bc knitting needles can be put down faster, and when i spin, i don't like to stop or be bothered and interrupted.

but i started to knit her a pair of socks a couple of days ago... presumably out of guilt from not finishing her onesie. the yarn is from my first dyeing project EVER- Kool-Aid dyed merino top which was supposed to be rainbow colors, but turned out more autumnal and i love it for that! i thought since it was kool-aid it had to be rainbow, but this was a super-fantastic surprise! anyways, i spun it SUPER thin and navajo plied it *BOTH first-time experiences!* and knit a pair of ankle socks for myself last year *and as fate may have it, i just remembered while writing that sentence that those were the socks i wore in the hospital when i had her! *heart melting as i type!* and my mom exclaimed to the nurse, after she commented on my LOVELY socks, "SHE EVEN MADE THE WOOL!!!" lol, i die laughing. YES, mom, i turned into a sheep and sheared myself, then retook my human form to spin and knit this lovely yarn... isn't it funny how people who don't spin will presumably never get it! lol

anyways, i'm sorry i'm such a rambler, so i've finished the first sock, which was a little big, and she took it off INSTANTLY.... i know this sounds so dorky, but it hurt my feelings. my husband put it on her again, to make me feel better, and she just took it off again in an instant. but, i persevere, this time casting on 4 fewer stitches, and it looks like this one may be the right size, wether or not she'll EVER wear it, i can't say, but at least when she gets older, i can say "you see, here it is, i DID knit you something!" i haven't made it past the 1X1 rib yet, the last sock was knit in 2x2, but i didn't like it, i think it was TOO stretchy, and i'm having a vague memory of 1x1 being tighter and stretchier, so i'm trying that this time.

and in my last knitty update, i went to a baby shower saturday, the recipient being the woman i was knitting the blue garter stitch blanket for, she was much appreciative of her handmade gift, she's a little kU-ntry (in my best back woods impersonation!) so she LOVES handmade, hell, we all do down here. it's something about the south, now i'm not saying that pioneers up north didn't make quilts either, but the south tends to have a poorer heritage, where people made quilts to survive. and they didn't go to the store and pick out the most beautiful fabrics they could afford, they used the rags, old clothes and gave them new life. my german oma has given me three handmade quilts, one that was given to me on my graduation, and one for the birth of each of my kids. these quilts are like the personification of how i feel about old, traditional hand crafts. spinning, sewing by hand, it's my connection to my heritage. and that's why i don't understand when people ask me "why do you do that?!?!"

getting in a tangle with handspun

a couple of days ago, i awoke to the sounds of the little monsters messing around in our bedroom. after a few moments, i pulled my head up to see a trail of yarn snaking around the bottom of the bed, and down the hall.... in my exhausted state, i had left my plying project laying at the foot of the bed, with the yarn and the TWO BOBBINS of thread i was plying with from ON THE GROUND!!! i immediately scream to my husband who untangles our one year daughter, he does not understand the gravity of the situation. he stares at me, bewildered, as i'm frantically looking around assessing the damage. "just cut it off" he says nonchalantly. right. like it could be that simple! some people may think this is a simple solution, but not this beautiful yarn, i will not degrade THIS yarn! those beautiful peacock rovings that i painstakingly carded and pulled into roving, now lie with the handspun broken off below the wheel's orifice, the thread leading down to yards upon yards of my beautiful freshly spun yarn in a huge defeated lump on the floor. have you ever seen a HUGE tangled mess of fishing lure? that's what it looked like, i've had a lot of nightmarish things happen while spinning, but never anything as bad as this! i was furious, and knew if i wanted to keep my cool, i should just walk out of the room.

so there the lump sits, uncared for, and actually totally ignored by me, for a couple of days, untouched. yes, i'm avoiding it.

now, i consider myself an untangling expert. i used to sit patiently and untangle my mother's necklaces when they would become wound around one another at the bottom of her jewelry box. but this is HANDSPUN!!! so beautiful and fragile!!

it's devastating. i've worked on it a few times now, each time growing more impatient and frustrated with the whole damn thing. still not even CLOSE to being finished. and cursing myself the entire time for choosing to use TWO damn plying threads instead of one!!! DAMN YOU, SPINNING GODS!!!

this is spinning in the real world, damn it! no prince charmings or fairy godmothers, no magic wands, and no xanex!!