Violet and a Turned Heel

I promised you a photo of the finished, overstuffed turtle. Her name is Violet:

She is on her way to greet her new owner, my niece who is about to turn 5 years old this coming week. Hopefully they will like each other!

More progress has been made on the first socks. It has been such a busy week I wasn’t sure I was going to get my homework done for class. We were to knit down from the cuff through the heel flap (the leg part of the sock, in other words), in preparation to turn the heel in class. I finished the heel flap Friday night, class was Saturday morning.

Our regular teacher was out of town, so we had a stand in, who was simply excellent. Apparently I didn’t understand the “SSK” instructions because I ran out of stitches on one side too quickly when knitting the heel “pooch.” I thought you were to slip a stitch, slip another stitch, then knit the next stitch. Wrong! Right: Slip a stitch, slip another stitch, then knit them together. That was a whole ‘nother ball of wax, as my math teacher used to say. Finally, it worked out!

Then you have to pick up stitches along both sides of the heel flap, and redistribute your stitches on 3 needles, everafter to be known as Needles A, B, and C. Then you begin decreasing just a smidge and then start to knit the foot. That wasn’t bad at all!

Of course we were talking and a few of us got distracted and did some minor frogging, but overall it went well, and the dreaded turning of the heel really wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was kind of fun. We don’t have class next Saturday, but will finish on Saturday the 9th. So when I get to the point where we’re supposed to stop (just before the toe shaping), I will work on the 2nd sock and try to get it to the same point by the 9th. Wish me luck!

Sock mania

When catwoman4 and I were at Stitches Midwest last August, I got the deep feeling my subconscious wanted me to learn how to knit socks and learn how to knit something in the Entrelac stitch pattern. How do I know this? I bought sock yarn, sock blockers, stitch markers and even 2 books on how to make socks. I also bought a pattern for an Entrelac shawl at JoJoland’s booth. (Just the pattern, not the yarn!)

But I knew that any thought of learning either of these techniques was off in the future, as I had other projects already lined up. Yet my subconscious insisted I buy these things now because of course the future does happen.

Well, one of the techniques (socks) is happening. I began a Basic Sock class at a local yarn store on Saturday. In subzero temperatures! (So you know how dedicated I am to learning this because I actually left the house at -8 degrees F!) The teacher is very good, and so is her stand-in for next week. It’s a 3-Saturday class.

This week we learned how to cast on to double pointed needles (dpn), and begin the K1, P1 cuff, and then ease into stockinette stitch for the leg.

(The sock is upside down — the ribbed cuff is at the bottom.) I think the yarn is Australian Merino. Why yes, it is. (It’s also made in Italy, go figure!)

Here’s a close-up:

That’s what I did in a 2 hour class. Not too shabby. By next Saturday, I have to finish the leg, and do the heel flap. Then in class we will turn the heel. Cool! If I get far enough, I may start the second sock so I don’t get the dreaded Second Sock syndrome.

The turtle? How nice of you to ask. I finished it yesterday (last night), and will post a photo later on this week. The poor little thing is overstuffed, but I’m hoping with lots of playing by my niece that it will eventually squish down. I am leaving town this afternoon due to a funeral, but I will be back later in the week.

In the meantime, in spite of the funeral, I am quite excited about learning how to make socks! My subconscious was right!

Turtle shell and YOMC

I honestly didn’t feel like knitting over the holidays. I don’t really know why, maybe I was just too plumb tuckered to knit. I also wasn’t sitting much. We visited both families (his and mine) and spent an entire week on the road. I took a knitting project, but never took it out.

I did ponder how to seam the turtle shell, though. It was puzzling to me (see previous post). I ended up putting an I-cord around the smaller bottom piece, and now I am taking my crochet hook and single crocheting the top to the bottom. It’s turning out pretty good.

Here’s a closer look below.

I am about to put some stuffing in so I can close the rest of the shell up. Hopefully I’ll finish this weekend. I have 1 of the legs done too, but 3 still to go. My niece’s birthday is January 30th. I may not get one done for her brother, but we’ll see. I will be taking a “basic sock” class beginning Jan. 19, and it runs for 3 Saturdays, although not consecutively. I finish Feb. 9. So that will take up a hunk of my weekends, I’m sure.

The other thing I wanted to show you is the new Yarn of the Month club samples. Check these out:

The green is “Moss by Teva Durham,” the more yellow one is “Vegas by Vickie Howell Collection,” and the brown on the right is “Rialto by Debbie Bliss.” The yarn on the needles is “Castello by Louisa Harding.”

 I picked up the Castello yarn first because it was so intriguing. Take a look:

There’s a couple of strands of variegated yarn, and a metallic thread that runs parallel to the yarn, and they are held together as one with these very light blue incredibly thin threads that go horizontally across the width of the yarn. Like a millipede’s worth of belts. Those are size 10.5 double pointed needles in the photo. It’s lovely, but I’m not sure what I’d do with it. It’d make a lovely thin scarf (it’s kind of see through because the stitches are so big), or an accent on a one-color sweater — burgundy or brown, sage or slate blue. There are a lot of colors in there. Mitts? Wristlets? I don’t know what you could use this for. It is lovely, though.

Above is the Rialto (left) next to the Castello (right and on needles). They look nice together.

The Vegas (left) and Moss (right) look good together also. I joked to catwoman that if I knit all of the samples up for 32 years, maybe I’ll have enough for an entire afghan! It is fun to get these, though. It’s fun to knit just a little swatch of something and see how it feels in your hands, and how it works on the needles, and how you like the color. A good deal. We’ll see how long I can do this before I get tired of it or bored. So far (3 months = 12 samples), not too shabby!

Peace.