Somebody Loves my Socks!

When I first started blogging, I had my doubts that anyone would have much interest in what I had to share. Well, I knew that my close knitty friends on EZasPi and a few others would come visit, but beyond that I had few expectations. Last winter when I was convinced my blog was very lonely I added a visit counter which helped a lot. At least someone--besides Kat, Diana, and Regenia, that is-- was looking at my socks and lace and flowers. Cool! I was happy.

Things started to change this summer when I joined the Summer of Socks KAL. Suddenly my circle of reach expanded beyond mostly lace knitters to folks who are mega passionate about knitting socks. One day I got this email from Dr. Laura of Sirius Knitting. She is perhaps best known in the knitting community for her Friendly Socks pattern books, but she also keeps a blog called Socks and More which highlights socks knit with yarns from Crystal Palace. Most of my summer sock knitting involved an awesome CP yarn called Panda Cotton--a fact not missed by Laura. She asked if she could post some of my sock pictures on the Socks and More website. How could I say no??? She posted a piece on my traveling Meida's Socks several weeks ago. Cool!

Today Laura emailed me to announce that I was "Star Search Sunday" on Socks and More. It turns out she did a collage of all my Panda Cotton Socks and wrote a few nice things about my blog in her weekly feature of other knitters. To say I'm flattered would be an understatement! Of course the best part is I have all these great socks ready to wear with my favorite clogs this fall, but a little acknowledgment from the knitting community and the folks at Crystal Palace doesn't hurt. If you have the chance, hop on over to Socks n More and see all the great socks featured there. Thanks Laura!

The List is Shrinking...

The list of unfinished knitting projects that is. I can't believe I'm getting such a rush out of finishing things, especially since I'm such a "process" person who loves to start stuff but doesn't always feel compelled to finish everything I start.



Today's finished project is a pair of socks I'm calling the Little River Socks (LRS). I saw this lace pattern in a scarf design and I really liked it. I took a brief gander around the net looking to see if I could find a sock pattern that incorporated this lace, but I didn't see one. I had a nagging suspicion that a pattern existed somewhere, but I decided to unvent a pattern for myself using Crystal Palace Panda Cotton, one of my favorite sock yarns. I started my 1st pair of LRS using a variegated yarn and a cast-on of 64 sts. I finished the 1st sock and found the variegation obliterated the lace pattern and 64 sts was too many for a nice fit with this chubby sock yarn.


Rather than knit the 2nd sock, I decided to use a solid color Panda Cotton in blue and try again, this time knitting over 56 sts. The 56 sts proved to be just right and the 1st sock fit perfectly, so I went ahead to finish the pair. I cast-off this morning and in a few minutes I had the ends tucked away. You gotta love that star toe--no grafting! My LRS were ready for their photo shoot.


I headed out to the garden to shoot some pictures. The pictures I took of Meida's socks in the garden were such a hit I thought I'd try and replicate the experience. My garden looks quite pathetic after a summer of record heat and record drought. I find myself envying the folks who are getting all the rain, even if it's flooding. It's been so dry here in East Tennessee it feels more like the summers I spent in the Utah desert. Fortunately the lantana I planted is drought resistant and I have several "hedges" of it in my front yard. Besides being a nice backdrop for photographing knitted socks, lantana is a magnet for butterflies and bees. Just by coincidence a big, beautiful black Eastern Tiger Swallowtail happened to be dancing from blossom to blossom right where I was photographing socks. I snapped several shots of the butterfly and was delighted to find they turned out. You can't see the iridescent shimmer of the blue on the hindwings in the picture, but I think the butterfly surpassed the socks for a great garden picture.

I took more pictures of the socks which will be posted on my Flickr page here along with all the details of the project. You might want to buzz on over and feed on the eye candy there :-)

PS. After going through all the working of writing out my own pattern, I did find a published free pattern using the same lace on the SockBug's site. I don't know how I missed it! I guess that means I won't need to post my pattern after all. Cool, I prefer creating to pattern-writing any day!

Little Volunteers

It's been more than a week since I updated ya'll on my knitting projects, but what can I say? It's hard to have show and tell when you're un-venting a sock design and you don't want to show it just yet ;o) I'm certain it's an unvention, but I haven't seen this design in anything I've looked through recently, including the more than 200 sock patterns I had saved from online (free or otherwise) that I just burned to a CD_R disc. What I can tell you is that even taking a simple lace/cable motif and dropping it into a basic sock formula still takes work and lots of test-knitting to make sure that things like gauge and fit are all working together in harmony.


The first sock I knit was out of a multicolored yarn (Panda Cotton, of course! my new favorite sock yarn). The yarn is great, the colors are great for fall/winter socks, the design is pretty good too, but they didn't create that nice harmony as the colors overwhelmed the stitch details. I discovered that the sock was a bit too baggy too as the 64sts that were perfect for the stitch pattern were too many for a nice, snug fit over the ankle and foot. So I cast-on again using a solid color yarn and 56 sts this time. So far thigns are looking good, but I'm still working the gusset decreases so it's too early to know for sure.

I'm also knitting a little on the MS3 "Swan Lake". The unveiling of the theme and the asymmetrical final design caught most folks off-guard. I half expected the asymmetry since Melanie's last stole, Hanami, was her 1st asymmetrical design. Even still, the Swan Lake design seems to be quite distinct from what I can tell at this point. It'll be quite interesting to see how the final clues shake out. I've been knitting on the natural-colored stole and am planning to knit the "wing" although I haven't gotten to that point yet. I'm very skittish about grafting 2 halves of the stole together in the middle after I finish the knitting as my "Kitch" stitch is quite terrible as to nice even tension. I was pleased to get the email from Melanie today announcing a non-grafting symmetrical solution to the dilemma. I was racking my brain as to what to do for my blue stole, and this looks like an easy answer to me :-)


I didn't want to leave without sharing a few cheery pictures, so I thought I'd show you a few little "volunteers" that showed up in my veggie garden. The sunflowers were "planted" by the birds who love my birdfeeders. Did you notice the second sunflower picture? It's actually 3 small flowers blooming in tandem--2 in the back and one centered on top. Strange, huh? I planted a few seeds last year for a Zinnia hybrid called "Thumbelina" They are miniatures and are quite cute. Of note was the phrase last year, as I didn't plant any this year. No, they just came up along the edge of the lawn and next to the raised planter boxes. I just love the plants that liberally self-sow adn grow without any work on my part.

My Favorite Things

I've had a such a fun weekend enjoying a few of my favorite things. What things? Well, knitting socks and lace and watching Wimbledon Tennis and the Tour de France on TV. I've been so looking forward to the Tour de France, not because I have a clear-cut favorite rider this year like I've had the last several years, but because it's like going on a trip to France and getting to see the countryside, but without actually being there. Don't get me wrong, I would *love* to be there, but this is the next best thing. Since the recent champions (Lance Armstrong, Floyd Landis) are now retired, I'll be watching Levi Leipheimer closely along with a few others. Wouldn't it be cool if an American won again? The odds are not as good this year, but it's possible. There's one thing I do know, that is knitting and watching the Tour de France on TV are excellent companions :-)


And so, speaking of knitting, I've been a busy little thing. Thanks to a little sale at KnitPicks, I've got several new books on their way to my house. I picked up EZ's Knitter's Almanac, Alison Jeppson-Hyde's new book Comfort Shawls, and the new book by Koigu. I ordered a few needles and some sock yarn while I was at it (the things I really needed ;-) to qualify for free shipping. Then I hit Michael's to buy a few balls of LionBrand's CottonEase on sale. Yes, I'm going to try again to knit a cotton sweater that fits--but don't hold your breath as I've not succeeded yet. I'm more confident, though, as my knitting skills have vastly improved since my last sweater attempt. To finish off my shopping spree I hit the Yarn Haven to pick up 2 more balls of yes, Panda Cotton! I've have intentions to design some anklets, but I needed a solid color, so I grabbed some pink this time around. Sandy got some more Kid Merino in stock and I spied a purple and green ball called violets that just screamed my name. I even grabbed the size 7 needles that Jane Sowerby knit everything Mohair in in VLT and knit a (gasp!) swatch to see how it worked up. I haven't measured my gauge, but it looks to loose for my tasted so I will most likely use a size 6 needle when I start a real project.

Speaking of real projects, I took some pix of what's up in my knitting basket. I went back to work on the 2nd Jaywalker and am almost done with the heel flap. I really want to get these things done as I'm quite tired of knitting them. But the Jaywalkers don't count for my SOS KAL, so I'm also knitting my 2nd pair of Panda Cotton socks, this time using the Victorian Lace pattern from the Six Sox KAL. Gotta love knitting socks in the summer!


I printed out the 1st clue from the Mystery Stole 3 KAL last weekend, but I had no intention of casting on until after I finished the Hanami Stole. That was before I did some blog reading and caught up with the the Yarn Harlot. Yes, even our famous and beloved Stephanie Pearl-McPhee succumbed to the crowds and cast-on the MS3 using some yarn out of her stash. That was when my resolve faltered and I did some stash digging myself. I cast-on Friday night using KnitPicks Bare laceweight and some 8-0 Champagne Silver-lined seed beads. Choosing the beads was tough because nothing really looks good with natural colored fiber. Or at least I never found anything that worked when I was tatting with beads. I felt good about my choice in the lighting of my bedroom, but when I hauled the lace outside yesterday it looked just awful. So I had a dilemma. I was half way through Chart B so I didn't want to frog it, but I needed to get rid of the beads without damaging the yarn. Being the risk-taker that I am (NOT!) I took a hammer to the beads and crushed them. Even better, was I didn't cut the yarn because the beads were so completely shattered. Cool!


So I should be satisfied now that the beads are gone, right? Well, yes, i love the look of the natural colored yarn, but I'm so disappointed to not have beads in my project. I had some amazing deep blue AB beads in my stash that looked great with some light blue lace yarn. I had 3 skeins of Alpaca Cloud in a light smoky blue, but I was afraid I'd run out of yarn so that wouldn't do, but I also had a cone of super skinny cash/merino/viscose from ColourMart. A single strand was too skinny, so I went through the hassle of turning it into a center-pull ball of double-strand. I had a little bit left over, which I double stranded into a tiny ball and decided to cast-on and knit a swatch (gasp again!) in pattern with the beads. Oh pretty! So now I'm knitting 2 Mystery Stoles, one with and one without beads--and I like them both. What a crazy fool I am for doing 2 at once!

Knitting, not blogging

I guess I've been too busy knitting because it's been 5 days since I last updated my blog! Oh my! Meida's Sock has contined her travels around town, accompanying Daddy to cardiac rehab at the UT Heart/Lung Institute and going to Church on last Sunday (where a few more rows were added during the worship service).


On Tuesday the Sock went to campus for the Phenomenology Research Group meeting at the College of Nursing. A few more rows were added during group, then the Sock paid a visit to the iconic Torchbearer that watches over UTK. The Sock tried to fit the Torchbearer's foot, but as you can see, she was far too small. Let's face it, the Torchbearer is a very big statue! But the little sock was not discouraged because she was destined for smaller feet anyway--all she needed was her companion sock which was well-underway.

I finished Meida's socks on the 4th of July--and you thoughts all those parades and fireworks were celebrating something else? Nah--it was the socks! And can I tell you how much I love this pattern and the Panda Cotton Yarn? Well, I do--and so does my pal Ewe-nice!




I love FOs. It's so nice when I complete a project as I tend to specialize in WIPs/UFOs. But now that my 1st pair of SOS socks are finished, it's time to cast-on the next pair. Given my current passion for Panda Cotton it's no surprise that I'm using it again, this time in yellow. I'm knitting the Victorian Lace Socks from the Six Sox KAL group. I cast-on and knit a couple of pattern repeats on Thursday, but once again, my version was too large. So I frogged and restarted with only 56sts instead of the original 64. This will help me to know what I need for my next idea--to design a summer anklet out of the Panda Cotton. I live in cotton anklets, so this could be a very useful pattern for my sock drawer!

Just a Quickie

It's getting late and I'm tired an a bit grumpy tonight, so I'm just posting a quickie here to update my progress on all things knitty. I've been focused mostly on knitting Meida's Socks (from IK Favorite Socks book) the last few days as I'm quite smitten with everything about them: the pattern, the yarn, and even the periwinkle color! I finished the 1st sock last night, using the non-kitchener toe closure in the pattern. I'll admit it is a heck of a lot easier than grafting, which I hate to do, but I'm not sold on the final look just yet. Maybe the easy toe is a good thing, but I'm not certain of my opinion at this point.

I did have to add a couple of pattern repeats in the foot to make the socks long enough, but they do fit quite nicely. The fit is snug, but not tight; however, I will most likely go up to a 2.75mm needle the next time I knit this pattern. My success with this sock was especially joyful because knitting a good summer sock out of cotton/blend yarns is challenging. This experience affirmed my suspicion that I like Panda Cotton Yarn. In fact, I plan to cast on another pair of socks out of PC as soon as Meida's socks are finished. Kathleen left a comment on my blog the other day telling me about a great pattern from the Six Sox KAL that she just finished knitting out of PC. The pattern, Victorian Lace, is totally my style, so I joined the KAL to access the pattern. I dropped in at my LYS yesterday and picked up a couple of balls of the PC in a butter yellow so I'm all set to cast-on the Victorian Lace socks next. Thanks Kathleen for the great tip!

Sock Visits Smokies - pt. 2

We left our story of The Sock as she was being called to the head of the class for daydreaming at the Little Greenbrier Schoolhouse in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Of course, being a special sock, she did not get in trouble. Rather the Professor commented on how pretty her periwinkle dress complimented the rather drab interior of the old Schoolhouse and looked remarkably like the little flowers that bloomed in the forest in April and May. Before long the bell rang and school was let out for the day. The Sock gratefully escaped out the front door and headed down the rocky road that led towards home.

At the top of the steep slope above the schoolhouse, the little Sock paused to catch her breath as she looked over the small cemetery that adjoined the schoolhouse. So many of her friends were buried there! She was glad she had been strong enough to not succumb to the last epidemic that swept through the hills.

It's a long walk home, but the Sock didn't mind so much today as the birds were singing and the recent rain left everything green and fresh-smelling. The Rosebay Rhododendron were in full bloom and there were thickets of the big white fluff balls everywhere she went. Surely she was the luckiest little sock ever to live in the Smokies!

Safely at home after such a big adventure, the sock continued to grow and grow! The lacy edges curve upwards like the leaves on the Rhodies in the Park. Soon, the little sockwill be finished and ready for a companion!

SOS - 1 week down, 12 to go

The 1st week of the Summer of Socks KAL has passed. That means there are 12 weeks left to go for those of you into math and counting :o) Our fearless KAL leader asked us to report on any revelations we've had and report our triumphs and defeats. My immediate reaction was I am *never* defeated. That's right, never! That's because I refuse to accept defeat in my life. I firmly believe in the 3 Ps which enable me to never fail in my chosen endeavor: Persistence, Patience, and Plaas (that's me!). I try to be very choosy about what I do and I know that if I work hard and stick with it and I'm patient with myself and my limitations, there isn't anything I can't accomplish. I can't do everything, but I can do anything that I really want to do (there is a big difference).

So there's that answer, but what about the revelations? Well, I learned that Panda Cotton is a fat fingering yarn that isn't likely to want to knit at 9 st/". I also learned that it is rather splitty and can be a bit of a pain to knit with. But PC is also soft and has a nice amount of stretch to it and should make perfect socks. So, in the spirit of never defeated, when my 1st Panda Cotton sock didn't turn out what did I do? I went to my LYS and bought 2 more balls, this time in a solid color, and cast-on again. I chose a different pattern too, and guess what? This time my socks-in-progress look fabulous!

I cast on Meida's Socks late Tuesday night and yesterday they went on a little day trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My vacationing this year will be, out of necessity, limited to short, local jaunts. But then hey, lots of folks drive for hours/days to see the Smokies and spend their vacation time there. I'm just lucky enough to live here!

The first stop Meida's sock (aka the Sock) made was in Townsend, TN, also known as the Peaceful Side of the Smokies. We like to patronize the facilities at the Visitors Center there before we head into the park.
Here the Sock became a part of the historic Tennessee Heritage Trail!
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a very busy place in June, so local experts like us know just where to go to get our "mountain fix" without the crowds. The sock promised to not tell the whole world about our secrets, so I took her in through the "side door" on Wears Cove Road. This little gap in the mountain ridge open up to a lush bog where I have taken many of my finest wildflower photos in the past. The sock was impressed by the wild roses and Rosebay Rhododendron, but she didn't know about the hundreds of other flowers that live there in other seasons. There are many things the sock doesn't know about the Smokies, so I took her to school. Here you see her perched on a desk in the front row at the Little Greenbrier Schoolhouse in the Park.

The best part about sitting in the front is that the Sock had a seat by the window. It was hard to concentrate on her lessons with the beauty of the trees and creek just outside the window! Everything looked so green! But the little sock was happy to be inside as it was starting to rain and she didn't want to get wet.





Of course daydreaming in class can get a girl in trouble, so she is called to the head of the class by the Professor! Lucky for her the professor is also her grandfather. She is the apple of her grandfather's eye so she doesn't get in trouble for not paying attention.

To be Continued!

Getting my act together

WHEW! It is so nice to be able to finally feel like I am starting to get my act together once again. The whirlwind of the dissertation and graduation quickly spun into visiting relatives and friends and a neglected garden complicated by the daily challenge of supporting my parents as my Father's health continues to deteriorate and my Mother struggles to cope with it all. I've had neither the time nor the energy to put my own little corner of the house in order so to speak. But at last, the time has finally arrived and I'm digging through the piles of papers and dust and whatnot at last. It's really scary how fast life turns into chaos when one doesn't have, or take the time to keep things in order.

While I filled the big black bags full of trash and shopping bags full of things to donate to charity, I had plenty of time to rethink my knitting projects and priorities. Like my overloaded desk, I think my knitting plate is a bit overloaded too. How easy it is to get caught up in the spirit of the sticks and yarn and commit to this KAL and cast-on that project! Being a process person, I love starting things but don't always finish what I started. Yet with my knitting I almost always *want* to wear or use the finished item, so I am more motivated to persist through to completion. So with one KAL just started (SOS'07) and another about to get underway (MS3), I had to stop and think about what I'm doing. I made some choices and hope that I will be able to work through them with some efficiency.

My first serious decision was about my Bugs Shawl that has been sitting in limbo while I agonized over what to do. I love the yarn, but I hate how the lace designs turned out. After a nice sit 'n knit session with Sandy at the Yarn Haven yesterday afternoon I came to the conclusion that to frog and reuse the beautiful yarn is better than trying to force myself to complete something I dislike. I will take the shawl into the Yarn Haven and us the swift and helping hands there to help me get the task done without having to do the unthinkable and cut the yarn.

So the Bugs is bugging out. Next up was the Panda Cotton socks. While I was at the Yarn Haven yesterday I looked at all the cotton yarns with sock-making potential and decided that I still like the Panda. I found several patterns that I felt were a better match for the yarn, but the lace was too complex for a multicolor yarn. I especially fell in love with Meida's Socks from the new IK Favorite Socks book (another KAL I joined). If I did this design I could meet the needs of 2 KALs with one project--COOL! So I purchased 2 balls of Panda Cotton in a one of my favorite colors, periwinkle, an I cast-on last night. As of this moment I'm on my 4th repeat and things look great! My knitty pal Ewe-Nice says they are a perfect fit!

I'm also trying to finish a couple of WIPs so I can wear them and move on to other things. I finally finished the cuff on the 2nd Jaywalker sock and am about to knit the heel flap. I am *so* ready to be done with Jaywalking! There are "funny little places" all over the place, but none of them are especially visible once you put them on, so I'm not tinking to fix them all. In fact, I chose to leave some as a sentimental reminder of when they were knit--like while waiting for my graduation rehearsal to begin or keeping company with my Dad at the hospital. Sometimes mistakes have meaning that would be a shame to repair.

I'm making faster progress on the Hanami Stole now that I'm into the eyelet section. It's a pretty stole and I will enjoy it, but I suspect the softness of the silk will always leave it with curled edges. Perhaps adding beads will help weight things, I don't know. I have my doubts about the silk holding a good blocking too, but I won't know for sure until I'm finished. I think I will stick to garter stitch lace for fine silk like this in the future. I'm planning on finishing Hanami before casting on the MS3. The will give me time to see what the design will be and make decisions about yarn and if I want to use beads, etc. or, for that matter, if I even want to knit it right now.

So that's the way things are here at beadntat. The place is getting clean, the knitting is moving along, and I looking for a *real* job for the first time in years. Life is good--very good.

Adventures in Sock Knitting

I wear socks every day. I'm a "house-sock" person. Where some people wear slippers or "house shoes" I wear socks. I wear socks to bed. In fact, I can't sleep if I don't have my socks on. They are my ticket to regulating my erratic body body temperature. Too hot? Take the socks off. Too cold? Socks on! It's almost magic really. For the most part I wear simple white cotton anklets--you know the kind I mean, the ones they sell at Sam's Club, Walmart, or Costco in bags of 6 or 10 or 12 pairs. I *need* those big bags of socks because they wear out fast and because Miss Emme, my little dachsy, has this thing for my socks. She picks them up (yes, plural, she wants them both in her little doggy mouth) and hauls them away to all her favorite hiding places in the house.

After Emme chewed a hole in my 1st handknit sock I became very careful to keep them well out of her reach but I don't really care that much about the Sam's Club socks. As long as I have a clean pair to wear when I need them, it's OK. I didn't cry over the 1st handknit sock either as they had, er...well, let's just call them fit issues. Let's just say that size 3 needles recommended in the "how to knit socks" booklet I used for guidance are too big to knit a good sock out of fingering wt. sock yarn. I had worn the heels thin in those socks in months. That was my first lesson in sock knitting--small needles are your friend if you want to wear your socks for any length of time. Oh, and, keep them out of the reach of dogs!

So, I got carried away with the illusion of "free time" that I would have this summer now that the dissertation is done and I'm a "free" woman. I signed up for a bunch of KALS--too many KALS really. My fault was not in signing up and enjoying the camraderie and the designs, but in thinking I would actually be able to knit them all on time with the groups. I'm not a speed knitter. But the official start date for the Summer of Socks 2007 was last Thursday so I dutifully cast-on a new pair of socks that would be just perfect to wear in the summer. Why would they be perfect? Because I would be knitting them from Panda Cotton, a blend of cotton, bamboo, and a bit of elastic to keep the sagging in check.
So I did the logical thing and went to the Crystal Palace website to find a pattern to go with the yarn. Crystal Palace has great pattern support for their yarns, and the best part is many of those patterns are free for the downloading!

I found this great pattern by Adrienne Fong called Fly Away Home which sort of looks like ladybugs. Ladybugs, summer, cotton yarn--this sounds great. I grabbed a bunch of dpns and started in. The design called for a picot cuff which I think looks awesome, but I had never knit before. No time like the present, I thought, to learn a new technique. I found some waste yarn to do a provisional cast-on and I was off. that "off" didn't last long once I had the provisional undone and 2 sets of dpns, including my favorite KnitPicks super slippery 2.5mm ones, dangling in strange ways as I tried to get it all to come together into a cuff. The needles slid, I dropped stitches, I switched to bamboo and aluminum, I hissed, I found my dropped stitches and went on. At last, I had a very nice picot-edge cuff, a very stretchy cuff. I made a mental note to learn to Magic Loop before trying this technique again, and proceeded to follow the pattern.


Knitting on, I loved the ladybug lace motif. I also loved how fast my sock was growing. I tried it on and was surprised to discover that it fit quite nicely over my exceedingly curvy calf. This sock was fitting where no sock had fit before! Maybe there is something to this elastic added sock yarn after all. One pattern repeat down things were looking good, the same with 2, but by the 3rd repeat I was beginning to worry that this sock was too big. I added some needles and did a try on. Big indeed! But I could just knit a really long cuff and get away with it this time, I thought. Of course that would most likely mean I would need a 3rd ball of this skimpy yardage yarn. Then it hit me, I had to make the heel and foot smaller if it was going to fit--much smaller! I was already working on 2.25mm needles and somehow I didn't think going down to 2.0mm would be adequate to the task.


First I growled, then I did a gauge check. How does 6 st/" hit you when the design called for (YIKES! I don't remember seeing this) 9st/"! I knew I was sunk and I pulled the needles in preparation for frogging. The stitch holder in the photo shows about how much I don't need of this sock for it to fit. The second photo is a little exercise in yarn comparison: Panda Cotton vs. Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock or the fat sock yarn vs. the typical sock yarn. Lesson learned. Panda Cotton is more like Sport Weight. The yarn is now rewound and I'm searching for the next pattern to try. I have a couple of promising ones that call for sport weight yarn at a gauge of 5.5-6st/" I guess I'll be casting-on again soon :-)