Hazel Knits Sock Club the first!

I just got the first shipment from the Hazel Knits Sock club for this year, and may I say that I LOVE the yellow. However, don't let the candy bar in the picture fool you, I did not let one tiny taste enter my mouth, instead I tossed it up in te air and enjoyed the show as my husband and son fought over the tasty treat.

I am geared up now for the Rockin Sock club now, and am over a barrell as to what to knit with the lovely yarn I just got.

An Update on my Challenge.

Hello everyone, and happy Valentines day to you and yours!

Well, I have gotten off to a strong start on my year long sock knitting challenge, and I am happy to say that I have worked on, and completed 5.5 pairs of socks. I have half of my Rockin Sock Club kit done, which makes the half of a pair of socks. With that said I now have 24.5 pairs of socks to go, and I have yet to run out of steam......... or sock yarn for that matter.

So far I have knitted the following:

1. A pair of plain black socks for the husband.
2. Eunice by Cookie A. (From her book Sock Innovation)
3. Genetian by Lisa Stichweh (Free Ravelry download)
4. A plain pair of purple and blue striped socks.
5. Raven Swirl Socks by Cookie A. (Available through Blue Moon Fiber Arts)

Hopefully I will finish the socks I am working on, and then move onto several other pairs I have planned.

Anyhow, I have much knitting to do, and my next post shoud have the first installment of the Hazel Knits Sock yarn club.

See you all then!

Sock Club the First!

This year I signed up for two diffrent sock yarn clubs, and the first of them has arrived at my doorstep. I was happy to see the Blue Moon Fiber Arts delivered as promised. I was disappointed however to see that both patterns were colorwork. The bane of my entire knitting existance. However, I am going to give it a go and see how it all turns out. If it is a disaster, I will frog it and forget it ever happened. There are other things to do with yarn after all.

Love. This. Book.

When I put this book on order at Amazon.com a few months ago (It was backordered due to demand), I couldn't wait to get my grubby little hands on it. I own Cookie A.'s first book Sock Innovation, and have been drooling over her other patterns on Ravelry.com over the last year or so, but I never thought I would love a book of sock patterns this much.

OK, from reviews on Amazon.com, I read that some people are not pleased that there are only a few new patterns in the book, but I didn't care because I really wanted them anyway but never had the money to fork over to collect them one at a time. So buying this book just made sense to me.

From the time I tore open the cardboard shipping materials and loveingly opened the front cover I was already dreaming of knitting all of these socks, and the vividiy colored pictures were a great jumping off point for my daydreams,as well as my plans for how much sock yarn I was going to have to invest in. Each page was filled with clear, well written instructions on how to knit up each sock, with clear diagrams in the margins explaining sizing and chart placement. Each part of the projects were even labeled clearly.

The only down side to this book I could see, was that the projects were leaning toward being yarn hogs, and some knitters (including myself), sometimes don't have the money to go out and spend on two and three skeins of sock yarn to complete a project. It's a good thing that Hazel Knits offers quarter skeins though.

2011 - Year of the Sock!

With the dawn on a new year, and a new decade for that matter, it came time again to decide on this year's knitting challenge. However, the truechallenge was to decide on what to do this year to make it stand out above all the rest. My first instinct was to continue in last year's theme and knit 11,000 meters of yarn, but that would get old since I had done that already. i thought to knit eleven sweaters or shawls, but sometimes, even I take a few months to finish anything larger than a mitten.

Stuck in my quandry, I began to look forward in the year for inspiration. Many of the events I looked at happen every year, and none had any themes that I could turn into a year long challenge. I was close to giving up when I saw it, the one event with a theme that I could use to make a year long challenge, and have tons of fun while doing it.

SOCK SUMMIT!

Now to make a long and boring story short, I plan to knit thirty (yes) pairs of socks in one year. And to tie it into my diet that I started at the beginning of the year, I set the following rules:

1. No more that two socks may be knit on a circular needle.

2. All ends must be woven in to consider the socks completed.

3. Socks must be made to fit a human being. No catsocks, no dog socks, or hampster socks.

4. If I cheat on my diet, I must deduct one pair of socks from the total number of pairs knitted. Ewample: I have worked three pairs of socks. I sneak a cupcake, I have to deduct a pair of socks, leaving me with two pairs of socks.

5. Socks started before midnight December 2010 may count toward goal, yet any socks not completed before 12:01am Janurary 1, 2012 may not count toward the goal.

With that, I have to get off the computer now and get working. Thirty pairs of socks is alot when you think about it, and well, I have 59 socks (Thirty times two is sixty) to go.

Happy knitting.

What a Long, Strange Year it has Been.

First off, let me say that I do not like writing these Year in review things. Frankly, no one really cares that Lindsey Lohan went to jail for the umteenth time this year after being caught with drugs yet again, (you want to shock me, tell me when she gets cought with a book) and if you follwo this blog, you pretty much know what is going on in my life. However here is an EXTREMELY brief synopsis of how the year went for me:

News Year Day, Madrona Fiber Arts, son turned 5, Sewing and Stitchery Expo, Husband's Birthday, signed up for the Hazel Knits sock yarn club, Disneyland and Universal Studios, new spinning wheel, Oregon Flock and Fiber, Snowmageddon four hour commute home, Thanksgiving, work sucks, Christmas, OMG! Final batch of yarn club shipment.

With that all said and done, I now give you the final shipment of the Hazel Knits Yarn Club for 2010!

As you can tell, Wendee has once again outdone herself, and included a great suprise in this shipment in the form of a project bag printed with a blue sheep to match the yarn colors. I had so much fun this year that I plan to sign up for this club again next year, as well as the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin Sock Club. Awesomeness!

In other news I have the final totals for my year long challenge to see it I could burn down my stash by knitting 10,000 meters in a year. Well, it was a great challenge to see if I could keep from buying new yarn throughout the year, and I slipped up a few times, but I managed to do it and then some.

The total is (imagine a drum roll here): 12,047 meters of yarn knit in a single year!

I have a few ideas for next years challenge, but haven't completely decided on what to do. I will post it early next year though.

Until then, Happy New Year! See ya'll on the flip side.

Christmas Ornament 2010.

As you may remember from a prevoius post, every year I make a Christmas Ornament for my tree using beads and other interesting bits and pieces. However, unlike last year, I try to make five different color variations (Last year's ornament contained some hard to find vintage beads, and I could not find other colorways that I liked).

And now, the colorways.

Traditional: Red and Green are often the most common colors associated with Christmas, and I couldn't resist just making one like this, accented with 24 carat gold seed beads, and red and green Swarovski Crystals set off by bright white Swarovski Crystal Pearls, This on is definately a keeper

Nick: Sometimes I have no choice but to drag my little boy along with me on trips to the bead store, but he never seems to mind. So for this one, I Let the little guy pick the colors in this one. Of course he went for his favorite color (purple) and a rich emerald green, I decided that this one would be a bit diffrent, as I used Crystal Copper Swarovski drops for the corners of the netted fringe. This one is kind of my favorite because of the rich colors and the beautiful contrasts between the colors.

Carribbean: I was not sure how this one would turn out, but i fell in love with the Carribbean Blue Opal Crystal beads and I love the drops that I used in the corners of the netted fringe (Crystal Golden Shadow). This one actually turned out better than I thought it would, and I ended up really liking this one after all.

Lilac Summer: When Swarovski announced this pale lavender and light green as their new colors, I could not resist making another purple accented ornament. So this one was born, however to take some of the overwhelming gold out of the equation, I used the 14 karat gold seed beads instead of the 24 karat ones.

Vintage: This was another color selection I was not to sure about, but turned out wonderfully. I thought about making an antique inspired ornament and decided on a pale rose matched with the Palace Green Opal Swarovski beads, giving this ornament a bit of an Asian look with the jade greens. I went with the Nickel plated seed beads in the netted fringe here and really ended up liking the pale jade and pale rose seed beads in the body of the ornament as well.

Anyhow, that is the ornaments ffor this year. Perhaps next year, I will really go crazy!

Happy Holidays!