Happy Heel

I am so happy. I either have a very kind and accomadating spouse, or my fudges worked just fine on the socks. Or perhaps both.

I have finished the gusset increases today, and am in the process of turning the heel.
Here is the heel in process. The rubberbands help to tell me when to turn to short row a la Crazy Toes and Heels (http://www.queenkahuna-creations.com/).







I do a slipstitch heel as well as adding reinforcement -- my DH and I both wear out toes and heels, so I reinforce them. These had Skacel's darning thread incorporated. I used black. The toes used a purple thread that I can't find more of.






This is by far my favorite way to do socks. I do both at once, toe up and use lots of rubberbands. ;) I also have two long strands of dental floss here -- just before I began the heel. This is because, eventually, after many, many times I have learned a lesson. If I knit socks for someone else (read DH), I will make the foot too short. Or the heel will turn out odd and wonky. Or I will suddenly remember I forgot the reinforcement. I've also learned to put a safety pin or a large locking stitch marker in the cable loop on the sock that isn't being worked on. A friend and customer taught me this one. It's fantastically brilliant. Otherwise, I tend to concentrate so much on one sock that I ignore the other when I turn the heel only to find that the "magic" loop for the other sock has magically disappeared. Vanished. No trace. Lots of cursing. Lots of counting. Precious heel turning minutes lost. :)

And here is the heel successfully turned, and it fits his foot! Yea! And the heel looks like a cuff down sock. Way cool. :)Now, for the second one! :)

And then . . . the cuff. And decision time on what lace pattern in which to work it. Hmmm. . .

Don't ever assume

Just when I think I've got something down -- really down -- to the point where I can pick up needles, and just start knitting something hits me between the eyes.  I am humbled.  I get that nice ice pick feeling in the stomach.  Ah yes.  The feeling of . . . I've just made a mistake.

 

And this happened this very day.  Why?  Because when I picked up my DH's sock on Sunday, I didn't check my stitches.  I didn't count them.  I didn't make sure that for whatever incredibly bizarre reason I hadn't moved stitches around so my front and backs were uneven.  I assumed all was well.  And as we all know, assumptions are very, very, VERY bad to make. 

 

So those 3 odd inches I did over the weekend and the other inch or so I've done since?  Hell -- the whole blasted sock -- does it need to be rrriiipppped?  Don't know.  DH gets to try socks on today, though.  Then I'll know.

 

And I'll sure as blazes remember to check what I'm doing before I pick up a project I'd last laid down several months ago.  I hope.

Yarn Shoppe June/July Newsletter

Yarn Shoppe Newsletter June/July 2006
1374 Myers St.
Oroville, Ca. 95965
Phone: (530) 532-4331
Fax: (530)532-4331
yarnshoppe@sbcglobal.net
http://www.yarnshoppe.net/
http://yarnshoppe.blogspot.com/
T-F: 10-5:30. Sat: 10-5

Welcome to Yarn Shoppe’s Newsletter! Within you shall find advance notice of items about to hit the Sales Baskets, and news about new patterns, classes and other assorted goodies.

Can you find the SALE Yarn of the Moment? It moves about rather randomly. Kimono Ribbon is it at the moment. Gorgeous, gorgeous. Wonderful for accents, light weight scarves, or sweaters -- all with beautiful drape. Good colors too.

STORE WIDE SALE
in honor of Independence Day! That’s right! On Saturday, July 1st, for one day only, we’re having a 20% everything in stock (excluding sale basket -- which remains priced as marked). Not good with any other offer -- i.e. pick one -- 20% whatever you buy, or use the coupon in the Great Values magazine.

Remember, we’re CLOSED to honor Independence Day on Tuesday July 4th

What’s new?
Ok, we said it before. But, while we risk boring repetition, this is very, very important!
This is the time to start thinking about beginning your Holiday Knitting -- before it’s too late -- like a dozen gifts with one month to go!! Plan it out now. Who do you want to knit for? What should they get? Next, we’ve got a few new patterns from Heartstrings Fiber Arts -- two fantastic shawls and a great pattern for scarves, plus an interesting hat/fingerless mitt combination and a pattern for a polo dickey. The Bobble Lace Flowers is just calling to me!

We’ve also gotten in some new colors of Butterfly 10 super cotton -- by S.R. Kertzer. This is a fantastic mercerized cotton. Between this and Tahki’s Cotton Classic, and King Tut you’ve got mercerized cottons covered! Come in and color gaze. There is a summer tank or shrug calling out to you!

July Class: Basic Tank
This class is separated in Three parts.

Thursday Class: July 20th, July 27th, Aug 3rd from 2-4 pm

Saturday Class (repeat of Thursdays) July 22nd, July 29th, Aug 5th from 10-12.

**Please note that our social Knit Togethers are from 2-5 and are not conducive to lesson time, and so class stops at noon.**

Prerequisites: Familiarity with knitting, and purling.
You need: Pattern, yarn, needles.

Picture from www.fibertrends.com

Make a tank top for summer! Learn the basics of shaping and following a pattern. This is a good first sweater project and a great pattern to knit up for the summer! The first session will get you going with a few tricks of our own. The second class will get the shaping going. The third, will start with piecing the top together and get the edging underway.


August Class: Lace Leaves Scarves

This class is separated in Two parts.

Thursday Class: Aug 24th, Aug 31st from 2-4 pm

Saturday Class (repeat of Thursdays) Aug 26th , Sept 2nd from 10-12. **Please note that our social Knit Togethers are from 2-5 and are not conducive to lesson time, and so class stops at noon.**

Prerequisites: Familiarity with knitting, and purling.
You need: Pattern, yarn, needles.

Images from http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com

Heartstrings Fiber Art’s Lace Leaves Scarves are a great introduction to lace knitting and chart reading (pattern does include written directions). We recommend using Schaeffer’s Anne, which is a gorgeous hand dyed super wash yarn. Every skein is unique which means you’ve got a unique scarf! Actually, since you can make both scarves on the pattern with one skein -- TWO unique scarves! Don’t want both? Well, keep one and give the second as a gift!

Do you have a suggestion or wish to have a certain class? Let us know!

Knit togethers! As always, Saturday afternoons from 2-5pm are our Knit togethers, where people of all ages and levels of experience are welcome to come together and knit or crochet while socializing. We hope to see you there!

Birthdays! Did you know that if you come in on your Birthday you get 10% off? It’s our way of celebrating the day with you.

If you would like to receive this newsletter by mail, the subscription is $5.00/12 issues, which is really just covering postage. We aim for about an issue a month. Let us know in the Yarn Shoppe, and we’ll add you to that list.

Copyright: Please respect copyrights. Respect the hard work of others. Check out http://www.geocities.com/jbtocker/copyright/index.html for easy to understand, clear information about copyrights.

Post Father's Day Ramblings -- Briony

The interesting thing when you go from single to not-single is the sudden increase of the number of balls you have to keep in the air and juggle sucessfully. This goes includes the realization that the one you love might not want to eat mouse size portions of one meal all week. You might have to menu plan with a bit more variety. Then you go through household supplies at what seems an extremely rapid rate -- surely more than twice as fast? And then -- once you've begun to get those down . . . the holidays start hitting you.

Once upon a time, before My Love, I had exactly two people to knit for (excluding myself) -- my parents. And exactly one variation on the holiday theme -- my house or theirs? I had recently lost the last of my grandparents, begun what would end as a painful fission with one friend, and the old friends from high school were rarely seen, and infrequently knit for. Now I've got in-laws -- a whole new group! Happily I was informed early on that only my new father in law would appreciate anything hand made -- besides my DH, naturally. Well that saves months of agony and bitter disappointment, doesn't it?

So when Father's day approached, instead of smuggly knowing I had everything covered, I didn't. Mostly because of my aching hands -- which nixed any hand knit items. Panic. Severe. What in blazes did I used to do before I knit?? Cook? Well, that covered one -- and purchased chocolates covered the other. Phew! But -- how to arrange the celebrations?

Saturday night, after work, my DH and I took my parents out to dinner at the restaurant of my dad's choosing -- and he also got the chocolates. Sunday morning, at 6 am (we got to sleep in an additional 30 min longer than usual) had us blearily up and feeding our critters. By 7:15 we were on the road. Until 10:30. During which time we listened to the 2,500 someodd songs I've got on our iPod (shuffle mode meant alot of skipping -- classical and opera don't always help to keep the eyes open), and I knit. I also knit while we were at his dad's house and I got deluged by new faces and names. Most of which I actually recall. Rare for me.


Anyway, I got about 3.5 inches done on my DH's socks. They're in fingering weight -- Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock color way Amish, I believe. I'm doing them both on one long size 0 Addi Turbo -- which is 60" long. My favorite way to do socks. Eric -- my DH-- actually prefers worsted weight, but I want him to be sure, so am knitting him a finer weight pair to compare. I may be shooting myselft in the foot (not intentional pun)-- you should never argue when someone prefers worsted weight to fingering if you give socks as gifts. ;)



At the Shoppe I am periodically working with crochet to give my arms and hands some different movements. This, believe it or not, will be a sweater someday. I hope. Anyway, it's in Fiesta Yarn's Rayon Boucle. Colorway is Amazon. A bit brighter than what I normally wear. Ahem. But it was originally a shawl that had enough errors (early in knitter career project) that I couldn't bear it and had to rip it all out.




And for those of you who have been in the Shoppe recently -- or read the last blog post -- I finished the Trifold Knitting bowl and felted it yesterday. Ta Da!! Here it is before felting -- finished it Saturday.



Here it is felted on my deck drying in the sun.
Here is my dog Sorcha who is refusing to be photogenic. Does my shadow look irritated?



Here it is in place on the Yarn Shoppe's table. The pens are in the center -- designed really to hold yarn. The pockets have all the Shoppe Tools -- stitch gauges, crochet hooks, scissors, tape measures, calculators, sticky notes, darning needles, stitch markers etc -- and on either side sit notepads and coasters. Don't you want to come by and knit with us? We'd love to have you!



Here are the Irish Wolfhounds, Kiera and Konan who love to "help" around my parents' house and who visit upon occassion at the Shoppe. They're the sweetest creatures on earth, but shed nicely. Too bad we aren't into spinning dog hair.

And what is Chrisanne doing? Not petting Pippen at the moment -- hence his looking at her. She's doing . . . Socks! Yup. Didn't guess did you? ;) She's playing with a new lace pattern. Will she be farther alone tomorrow? Will she keep working on it? Or will it be rrriiiiippppeeedddd out or neglected for a newer, sexier project? Keep tuned to find out! Ah, what a pest I can be with a camera!

Trifold Knitter's Bowl

Well~ Where have I been? I know, I've more excuses than a knitter has stash -- but, this one's another good one! Honest! I did myself an injury. Yup. I did exactly what I tell everyone not to do. I worked several large projects in a row -- on a single needle size and didn't incorporate any crochet to break it up. Let's just say I was not a happy camper for two weeks when I forced myself to go cold turkey and didn't pick up a knitting needle or crochet hook at all! Well, not for longer than a few minutes each day to see if I could manage without pain. If I couldn't -- and I couldn't -- I'd stop and pout in a most adult fashion. ;) So! Then I started working very small amounts. And trying to avoid my arch nemesis -- size 10 1/2. Which is what I used to make two sweaters, a very long wide scarf, a blanket, two felted mobei etc. I've failed. I'm using it to make this really, really cool Trifold Knitter's Bowl which is in A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting by Cat Bordhi. It's gonna (assuming it works out ok) be feltd and then live on a lazy susan and be in the center of the table here at the Yarn Shoppe for all the Shoppe's tools and pens. Cool eh?






Here I am -- well, ok, the basket -- with the moebius completed. Yellow strands oh so attractively scattered inside are waste yarn ends. You can see ( I hope) the three twists that makes this a trifold moebius. Yup. Just ONE edge. Way cool.








Ok, so this is where I was by the time I came in to work Saturday. The yellow lines aren't decoration. They're waste stitches to hold the places for the six pockets that come in later. I'm using Araucania Nature Wool which is a gorgeous kettle dyed wool. Isn't it scrumptious? I carefully choose skeins that had maximum variation.







Now here I was before I went home for the weekend Saturday. This is about 2.5 hours of knitting time.








I did the pockets over Tuesday and Wednesday and just a shade into today (Thursday), as well as finishing the bowl part on Tuesday.

You can still see the moebius.














Ok, now I've got a petal done! It's one flap out of three that will sorta cover the bowl. I hope to finish the other two flaps today, but I'm knitting hard and fast -- another no-no as I can feel some pressure in my left elbow. But I will crochet tonight, and that makes it all good, right? :)










So that's all for now, folks! I'll try to post more often on projects. Especially when I finish this one and come up for air. No promises on gifts though. Those do be on secret, need to know basis only, me dears. Or, just come in the Shoppe!!