Ambrosia

I just finished my Ambrosia Socks. This is a beautiful sock pattern, carefully designed and documented. I knit them in Knit Picks Gloss in Cocoa which is very soft. The stitches are well defined and make a wonderful sock. Too bad I don't follow directions very well... I ripped them down about 3 times, so I should have been done a month ago. The first time I wasn't happy with my short row heels. They had holes at the turn, so I used a different method that I had used on my MIL's socks. Everyone seems to have a different way to turn the heel. I think I like this one best.

The butterfly rib pattern is so easy, I didn't think I needed to look at the directions after the first repeat. Just knit, and knit, and knit - Oops! I realized that I had not added the 4 additional stitches as I started the pattern up the leg, and I knew it wasn't right, but I kept going... Finally I looked at the pattern. Since I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I do like the knitting, I frogged down to where the pattern starts. Then, I kept knitting and knitting, thinking I must be almost done when, wa la, I looked a the pattern again, and I was supposed to move up a needle size 4 pattern repeats down. Again I frogged. Moral of the story, read the directions all the way through and pay attention! Anyway, I'm happy with them now. They are so comfortable and I love the pattern's detail. On to the next pair...

What Brought Me Back

This is the project that started it all. It was approximately 4 years ago. The woman who lead our bible study wanted to have it at her mom's yarn shop one night. I was immediately taken in by the small store in Pasadena, CA. I wish this store had a website. The name is Elegance Designer Yarns on Green St. You can Google it for the address. It was so artfully arranged. There was a comfy couch in the bay window, antique hutches and side boards with yarn spilling off the shelves in a riot of colors. I think I was taken back to when I first started knitting at about 8 or 9. I didn't stick with it then. The sticks were awkward and I couldn't keep my tension straight. If only I'd learned continental first. I think I only tried to knit a scarf at first and I quickly became bored. Besides, the yarn was something on the order of a Red Heart yarn. (Not that there's anything wrong with that... Seinfeld) Just not very comfortable to work with. At any rate, I heard that there was a workshop the next Saturday, so I signed up for it. Barry Klein from Trendsetter was teaching a pattern for an afghan. I think it is called Anniversary Plaid. It ended up not being a knitting project, but a crocheted one. That was fine with me because at that time I was more comfortable with crochet. Since my SIL was pregnant, I decided this would be the perfect project. It took a while, and after I had a few color changes I decided that I didn't like my choice of yarn. I hopped on down to my favorite LYS, Unwind, and there bought the yummy yarn for the blanket.

Drinkin' And Knittin'

Remember how I thought it looked so much better after I changed all the purls to knits?

Well, I wasn’t happy with that either so I frogged the panel down to where you start adding stitches again and really worked on replacing them with the pattern. The stitches look all wonky now because I used a size 0 needle to redo them and I just found two dropped stitches. Ya know, it ain’t easy to repair dropped stitches in lace. They are probably about, oh, 20 rows or so down. They aren’t even in the place I repaired. I’m thinking that was the other night when we had wine with dinner. Caution, don’t drink and knit lace!!!

I’m about ready to tear my hair out with this! I got to thinking that I probably increased the body the same way I tried to do the sleeves. Maybe I can just make a couple of wine cozies out of them...

A Few Finished Objects

Embossed Leaves Socks from Interweave Knits, Winter 2005

Hedera by Cookie A. These were done a while back, probably 2 years ago now. I've just had the pictures lurking on my computer. I'll post some more later. I've got lots more.....

I was wondering how others work on their blogs. Mine seems to go in fits and starts. Sometimes I have the words and no pictures, and other times I don't know what to say. At the moment I'm blown away. I went looking for inspiration at Grumperina's blog and this is what I found. She's married! Woah. That is so cool. I haven't checked in on her blog for a while and, well, I never suspected. Anyway, congrats! I took some pics of the repair I'm doing to the sleeves of the lace blouse.

Before and After

I think it looks better after. I wouldn't be comfortable with the pattern interrupted under my armpits. Just a little distracting, I think. I ended up just knitting all the way. There didn't seem to be room for the purls to show up except to continue up the center of the pattern. Ahh, now that the holiday rush is over I can concentrate on getting my own stuff done again. Mmmmm, more socks perhaps? I got this yummy yarn just before the holidays and I can't wait to start something.