The Other Half of the Sock-Along

Well, I finally finished the first of the Elementary Watson Socks.  They're only a season late, right? 

The pattern is actually quite awesome, and it is free, but the woman's size knits up big.  A lot of people in the Sock-Along found too big, sadly.  I have small feet, but I also knit these at tighter tension then the pattern calls for, and it worked out ok, even if they are a touch long in the foot. 

Anyway, I've started in on the toe of sock number two, and I must say, they seem to be knitting up faster this time.

I've had lots of knitting time, since I finally got Sim City 4 to work on Windows 7 (and that took a lot of fiddling, let me tell you!)  I've also been doing a lot of knitting to Babylon 5, since I've got a bunch of upcoming deadlines for things that need to be done.

However, I'm looking forward to this Friday. Assuming all works out with getting a reservation, I have a date night on Valentines Day!  (Ok, it's sappy, yes, but I'm still looking forward to it.  We're making it a treat and going to a seafood place, so it should be tasty!)

Very Late Fall Sock-Along!

So. . . remember my entry into EatSleepKnit's Fall Sock Along?

I finally finished the first of the Froot Loop Socks.

Just blocked it this morning.  Transit knitting is great for doing toe decreases.

And yes, this is quite a bit past the deadline.  But that's alright by me -- this pattern is actually quite thick and warm, and is well worth waiting for.  And it looks like I will have yarn left over, too.

One Christmas knit left, and updates on the Sock-Along.

I finished the Pine Cone Mittens yesterday night, and got a picture this morning in the sun.

I am glad to have yet one more thing done.  The pile of WIP's is starting to come back down to a manageable level, which is nice.

Currently, I'm frantically knitting on my test-knit socks to make the December 15th deadline, but I should have most of today and tomorrow to try and finish them.

Unfortunately, I've kind of given up on the Sock-Along.  If I do manage to finish, great, but I'm honestly not expecting to at this point, sadly.  I've been neglecting my socks, and I don't think I can knit two more socks by the 15th.   It was good incentive for me to make those hand-knit pairs of socks I wanted, though!

Knit-Along, Sock-Along

Hello again, and sorry for the brief hiatus.   I do not yet have a working laptop, but a friend has been kind enough to lend me his old netbook until my laptop is fixed. The laptop technician is hopefully coming on Tuesday.

In more knitting-related news, the cowl KAL is done, and I did not finish.  I got about half-way done.

But, I am loving how it's turning out.

I did get the needles I ordered from EatSleepKnit, but I realized that I wanted the HiyaHiya Sharps.  I'd ordered the standard HiyaHiya circulars.  It's my own fault for not paying more attention.

That's ok, you can never have too many circular needles in various sizes and lengths.  At this point I've gotten used to the Aero needles for this cowl, so I'll just keep it on those, I think.


As for the Sock-Along, it's progressing pretty well.  I did my first toe-up cast on with the Elementary Socks, and it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought.

The Froot Loops Socks have just been started again after I had to frog them.  But they're coming along ok.

They are coming along and I'm quite liking the colour.  This photo turned out pretty true-to-life for the colour, which makes them one of my more vibrant pairs of socks, but hey, I can live with that. 

Laptop Woes and beginning the Sock-Along

So for those of you who saw this post earlier, I apologize for the weirdness, Blogger and a tablet don't work so well together.

Yes, my laptop went sputch.

It's back running for now, with a priviso from the techs that "lets see if this happens again," basically.  They're going to call back tomorrow after I run some tests and see how well this thing works out over the next few days, and if their fix holds or if they need a new fix.

In the mean time, my yarn came for the ESK Sock-Along.  The poor postman actually came to the door while I was on the phone with the laptop tech, so I feel rather bad for him.

Anyway:  Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label in 'Natural'

and in 'Peacock'

(and yes, my hair got in the way of the camera on that second pic!)

I've done a lot of knitting with having a non-functioning laptop, but not actually a lot to show for it, since my primary knitting has been on the Evening Star Cowl KAL, which while pretty, doesn't knit up very fast at all.

It's KAL time!

So, I mentioned in a previous post that I'm doing a knit-along. 

Well, I started yesterday.

Here is my Evening Star Cowl in Malabrigo Sock.

It's kind of deformed right now, because it's jammed onto a 9-inch circular.  But it's working out ok, for the most part.  I am finding it hard to do a ssk with a YO with the Aero needles, just because they really are not pointy.  But I can work around that.  Otherwise, it's working out really well. 

The deadline is the 6th of October.  It's going to be tight, but I think I can make it -- and even if I don't, it's still a major push to actually make this pattern.

. . . but wait, there's more!

I've signed up for a Sock-Along that EatSleepKnit is running on Ravelry. It looks like it'll be a lot of fun.

There are two patterns:  One is Froot Loop (non-Ravelry link here), and the other is Elementary Watson.  They're both free patterns; so all I have to get is the yarn.   It starts October 1rst and runs until December 15th.

In order to be eligible for prizes, the yarn has to have been bought at EatSleepKnit, either previously, or as part of the sock-along now.  If you're buying specifically for the sock-along, you can let them know and they'll take 20% off of the sock yarn you're buying for the sock-along.  This post has all the details.

Anyway, I took advantage of this and bought two skeins of Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label.  One Skein in "Peacock" and one skein in "Natural."  I also bought a bunch of Sweet Georgia Superwash Worsted (to make the free shipping and it's a power boost yarn, too).

What makes this really awesome is that this purchase brought me to the point on their Yarn Lotto that I get a free subscription to a magazine of my choice for a year!  I'm going to choose Interweave Knits, which I've heard really good things about.  I've still got to sort the details out, but that shouldn't take too long.

So, I'm going to have lots of knitting to do!  But that's not necessarily a bad thing.