Embossed Leaves

Kathleen-
I somehow managed to knit an entire pair of socks with no blogging about them? Enter the Embossed Leaves Socks from Interweave Knit's Favorite Socks book.


I think these may be my fastest socks to date: I started them on December 23rd, and finished the knitting on Jan 13th (grafting the 2nd toe took until the 14th). Even so, that's 3 weeks, start to finish.


I knit them in my beloved Dream in Color Smooshy in the color Visual Purple. This second picture is more accurate to color. I'm wearing them today, and they are comfortable and surprisingly warm for lace.

I knit these on size 3 needles (actually one needle, a 12" Addi Turbo that I found in a Southern MN LYS in my travels this fall), and though I've never used the super small circ method before, I have to admit I liked it. However, I think the Smooshy would have benefited from a smaller needle size...maybe the 1.5 I used on Grandpa's Socks.

So now the question is: what to take to Knit Night?

Too Big AND Too Small

Hey Flan,

Firstly, to all the Vetrans past and present, Thank You for your sacrifice.

Being a city employee I have today off. I will probably spend today cleaning my house, baking and ripping out a large amount of knitting.

Saturday night I finally finished the back of The Mommy's Sweater. I had thought it was too big early on (there are always warning signs) but decided I was alright. Fool me. After I finished it was looking absolutely mammoth. Like I could have wrapped it around her, me, and the odd elephant and we would have all had room to spare. I broke down and emailed her to please send me some actual numbers to work from.

Turns out I'd made it a size too big. Ironically, with all the shortening I'd done to accomodate our genetically shrunken torsos I'd also made it too short. Woe is me. I have not yet ripped it out but it's on the agenda for today.

BIG FAVOR: Can you count the number of dpns you have and tell me if you have more than 2 sets per size for sock needles? (Also, anyone else reading that knits on dpns I would really appreciate that as well). I'm trying to design a needle case. I- the non-sock knitter- has 2 sets (the mm sizes, so the US 1.5 & 2.5 as well) for each size. So someone who knits socks often would probably have more. HOWEVER, they probably have WIPS, so those needles wouldn't be in a case. I spent many hours slogging over a calculator before switching to Excel in an effort to figure out how many needles people have and how many slots to make. Being as neurotic as I am, I want the slots to be the correct size so the needles don't just go sliding around.

The basic question is: do you think you have an average of 2 sets of dpns per size or 3?

Productive Weekend

Hey Flan,

I hope your OR trip goes well. Portland? Probably. Like Seattle it's the one and only city anyone knows and, also like Seattle, is NOT the capital.

Last week whilst knitting during lunch someone asked me what it was. I said "a sock". They looked at it for a minute and said, "it even looks like a real sock too!" I don't know exactly what she expected a knitted sock to look like, but whatever I'm doing looks "real" apparently.

So my lack of a size 6, 16" circular lasted about 30 seconds after my last post. I took myself over to Knitpicks and ordered one. With Shipping & Handling the whole thing was less than $7.50 and it got here in Saturday's mail. I was very impressed and am completely besotted with my shiny new needle.

Whilst on the site I just happened to notice the set of Harmony sock needles. They're so pretty. With all this new sock yarn I have I thought it would be prudent to have a back up just in case of breakage and the Harmony-s come with SIX needles per size. They're going to email me when the set is ready and I'm so very excited.

This weekend I managed to find beads for The Mommy's sweater! I tried to shop locally, but when I told them what I wanted they just looked at me funny so I had to go to one of the chain "craft" stores. In the end I found some in a good color and bought the world's teeniest, tiny-est crochet hook that will fit through the bead hole but is big enough to pull the yarn through. The pattern sucks and the sizing is all weird, so that sweater is again on hold whilst I work on The Rotting Pumpkin with my shiny new needle.

Happy Monday.