Break From Knitting

OMG! I am going to take a much needed break from knitting. Hopefully a small break will give my fingers a rest, and my pocketbook. I have amassed a lovely stash of yarn, so I have decided to take a break and go slowly and work through my stocks of sock yarn. I will knit along with the Rockin' Sock Club, but the knitting will not consume my every waking thought and those little last drowsy moments before sleep takes over.
But here is the kicker internets, I have put my quilt frame back up in the living room, so my fingers will not be getting a rest. And I found a lovely piece of cross stitch I tucked away a long time ago, and will take me a long time to come. It is a full size or queen size piece of fabric (I don't quite remeber, and I don't want to look for the package) that is almost completely covered in cross stitches. There will be pictures and angry posts about how stupid this project is and how much I hate it, but for now I love it and am plugging along, getting stuff done.

There shall also be pictures of my monsterous quilt frame, that takes up 8 feet by 3 feet of my living room, and the husband is not happy. I had to move around some furniture to fit the beast into the room, and the husband hates my quirky moving of furniture.
I will say that I move the furniture in my house quite often. We have lived in the house for 2 years already, and I still can't figure out how to arrange my living room furniture. I move it in the middle of the day while he is at work, and he comes home and just stares at the room, and glances at me and shakes his head. He thinks I'm crazy and I think its fun.
Ok, I have jumped around my topics enough, and it has come to a close. I will continue to post pictures, of non knitted items, and rave about the awesomeness of the Rockin' Socks Club.

Dyeabolical Socks

So I finished my Dyeabolical socks, in the pattern Dead Simple Lace socks. They look good, and I am so upset because I worked them from the toe up, and tried a new cast-off method, and totally ruined the socks. I cannot get the socks onto my feet, I think I really messed up the cuff's cast-off. So I don't know how to repair this. I guess I do need to attack it, because I want to wear the socks.

Also, I tried my hand at dyeing yarn, and it did not come out quite right at first. I tried to handpaint the skein first, but the colors bled and was a nightmare. Planning is key to dyeing yarn, I found that out the hard way. So I kettle dyed the poor ugly skein, and it looked like this in the kettle.


Now it is a hot pink ball of bubblegum ishness. I always wanted hot pink socks, so we will see what they turn into eventually.

Rockin' Sock Club

So I have just joined Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin' Sock club! I am so excited and a little bit scared. I have no idea what I will be getting myself into, but if it opens my creative ability to see patterns and colors, it has to be good. I can't wait for the first package at the end of January.

I am currently completely bored with the socks I am currently working on. They are Dead Simple Lace Socks from the toe up, and they are so easy that I am bored. I just want to use up the Dyeabolical Strong Arm Sock Yarn and I have a little ways to go. Pictures to come when I am all finished.

Also I got a book about hand dyeing for Christmas, and so I ordered some natural uncolored sock yarn, and some PRO Wash fast acid dyes. I want to try my hand at dyeing a few skeins of sock yarn for me, so I am waiting for that package also. Hopefully I can mix up some pretty colors and make nice looking yarn, and put up pictures of my creation.

Socks!

So for Christmas I got the book Socks From the Toe Up, so of course I needed to make my first pair asap! But of course I also got Socks 2-at-a-time for Christmas also, so I needed to see if I could apply this thought to toe up socks the same as top down socks. So I did. And made the Ribbed Ribbon Socks, and when I got them finished and blocked, I wore them to show my mother, and she took them. Shelike the socks so much she took them off my feet and made me sockless. It is 15 degrees F outside with 2 or 3 inches of snow on the ground and I have no socks because she loved my first work with lace so much.

So now I started on a new pair of socks, cause I lost mine. So now I start on the Dead Simple Lace Socks, and I am using my Dyeabolical Strong Arm Sock Yarn, dyed right here in St. Louis, MO. So the yarn looked superb on the skein, and great on the ball, but knitting up, the stripes are kinda pooling, and I hope it looks better when all finished. The colorway is beautiful but I'm just not sure. More pictures on the new socks to come. These are pictures of the Ribbed Ribbon Socks that my mom took. They were made using Alpaca Sox yarn.

Actual Pattern for Jovie Hat

Jovie Hat (From the movie Elf)
Yarn: Malabrigo single ply worsted
Color: Natural, ivory, bone.
Needle: Size 8 circular, 16 inch
Cast on 104 stitches.
Work in a K1, P1 rib for 6+ inches, or until the length desired. (Brim gets folded over, so it only appears to
be 3 inches.)
Next start working in the cable pattern,
Work these 8 rows and repeat them as many times as necessary to get 8 inches of cable pattern.
Place stitch markers at -
Row 1: C4B, C4F, for 32 st,-P4, K12, P4,- C4B, C4F for 32 st,- P4, K12, P4-
Row 2: K32, P4, K12, P4, K32, P4, K12, P4.
Row 3: K32, P4, C6F, C6B, P4, K32, P4, C6B, C6F, P4.
Row4: K32, P4, K12, P4, K32, P4, K12, P4.
Row 5: C4F, C4B for 32 st, P4, K12, P4, C4F, C4B for 32 st, P4, K12, P4.
Row 6: K32, P4, K12, P4, K32, P4, K12, P4.
Row 7: K32, P4, C6F, C6B, P4, K32, P4, C6B, C6F, P4.
Row 8: K 32, P4, K12, P4, K32, P4, K12, P4.
Start Decreasing when the cable section measures 8 inches.
End after row 5 is complete
Decrease rows
9: ssk, k28, k2tog, p4, k12, p4, ssk, k28, k2tog, p4, k12, p4.
10: Next row: ssk, k26, k2tog, p4, c6f, c6b, p4, ssk, k26, k2tog, p4, c6b, c6f, p4.
11: Next row: ssk, k24, k2tog,p4, k12, p4, ssk, k24,k2tog, p4, k12, p4.
12: Next row: Slip first 3 stitches on CN and hold to the back, k2, then work stitches on CN as follows,
ssk, k, c4f, c4b, for 16 st, then place 2 st on cn and hold to front, k2tog, k, the k 2st form cn. P4, k12, p4.
Repeat for the other half of work.
13: Next row: ssk, k20, k2tog, p4, k12,p4. Repeat for other half of work.
14: Next row: ssk, k18, k2tog, p4, c6f, c6b, p4. Repeat for other half of work.
15: Next row: ssk, k16, k2tog, p4,k12,p4. Repeat for other half of work.
16: Next row: Work the same as 12.
17: Next row: ssk, k12, k2tog, p2tog, p2, k12, p2, p2tog. Repeat for other half of work.
18: Next row: ssk, k10, k2tog, p3, c6f, c6b, p3. Repeat.
19: Next row: ssk, k8, k2tog, p2tog, p1, k12, p1, p2tog. Repeat.
20: Next row: Work the same as 12, allowing for the decrease in p.
21: Next row: ssk, k4, k2tog, p2tog, ssk,k1,ssk,k1, k1, k2tog,k1,k2tog, p2tog. Repeat.
22: Next row: ssk, ssk,k2tog, p1, ssk, ssk, k2tog, k2tog, p1. Repeat.
Last row: ssk, k2tog, ssk, k2tog, p. repeat
10 live stitches reamin.
Draw working yarn through live stitches twice and pull tight, secure.
Make pom pom* 4 inches long and attach to the top of the hat where stitches were pulled tight.
*To make pom pom, wrap yarn around a 4 or 5 inch piece of cardboard about 120 times, or until at your
desired fluffiness. I enjoy a very fluffy pom. Then have a length of yarn to pull through loops, and secure
in a knot, then cut once at one end of the cardboard.




So this is the pattern for the hat I had been working on for sometime. Finally it is online here and on ravelry, so i hope to be done for awhile. All this learning about computers and pdf files, my head is spinning enough for one day.

Jovie Elf Hat

So here is the hat that everyone has wanted for so long.


https://acrobat.com/#d=WKhS-n7Oo7dcXQz9PzMw1g

This is a link for the pdf version.