Socks, socks, socks!

Points to ponder:

1.Why are my photos sideways? I know why...but I can't change them where I'm at right now...

2. Will I ever get this sock done?

3. Is the second sock going to have the same issues with my lack of ability to count properly?

4. I have cankles! I never thought I had cankles. This is the men's medium sock...

More of my sock story

So after my marathon night of finding the dropped stitches, I ended up with this...not too bad, eh? It's fairly smooth, but there is one little patch that is somewhat messed up.

I knit on the heel last night, and THANK GOODNESS that I used a lifeline when I was done with the cuff because I dropped two stitched of the heel flap and had to rip all the way back after I had completed 15 rows! It wasn't too bad though, I'm almost done re-knitting the flap!

This weekend we're off to St. Louis for family time and a friend's wedding. It should be lots of fun! With all of the driving, I'm hoping to have a sock done, but we'll see!

My sock might be saved

O.k. - last night it took me HOURS...from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. to rip back my ribbing to a salvagable point and then pick up stitches from there. I won't tell you how many individual stitches had laddered down an inch or two, but I managed to get them all back on the needles, in the right direction and everything! This sock will not defeat me - I will defeat it. I did learn that I need a smaller crochet hook than a D, so for future socks I'll have to go buy one soon. I even started the heel flap (with a lifeline on the last row of ribbing) and am about 1/4 of the way through the flap.

I will make this sock. I'm excited to make a sock! My sister-in-law, who started sock knitting with me when I went to DC, has already finished her first sock! I have to catch up!

Sad Sock Story

I tried. I'm still trying. But I'm failing. You'll remember a recent post that told about my adventures in sock knitting. Well, I've had a few accidents since then.

Accident number one - I realized my heel flap did not have enough rows...so I couldn't pick up the required number of stitches. Plus, I felt like I should have made the sock a little longer in the leg this time..I was so excited to get started that I made it short. Really, really short.

Accident number two - this happened last night. I got into my four inches of 2x2 ribbing. Started the heel flap, got about halfway through and somehow managed to drop a stitch in there. I ripped back, and I HATE RIPPING BACK RIBBING. And managed to drop several stitches several rows down. I'm going to try to salvage it...again. But we'll see. I want to make a jaywalker sock so bad, that I almost want to say screw it to this one! But, I should do a simpler pattern first, right??

Last shot of the day - I lucked out at the grocery store and got some super yummy strawberries. We are starting to get some ripening in my garden, too!

I'm famous...or not really.

I was doing some blog surfing today and found a photo of me at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival on the Go Knit in Your Hat blog. Check out the first photo in the May 5th entry - I'm the girl about 3/4 of the way to the back of the line in the red shirt with my hand in my hair. Who wants an autograph?

SP 10

My SP 10 hit me with a nice little gift, don't you think? First of all, what a CUTE bag! I love bags - I feel like I have a zillion bags, but I'm always on the hunt for new and awesome ones, and this one fits that bill! The bright colors and flowers on this are SO CUTE! Then when I opened it, it was full of little brightly wrapped packages! Once I opened the packages (and I'll admit it took a long time because I couldn't stop staring at that great bag!) I found a host of other great things. Two skeins of Noro - in a fun bright color that matches the bag (I think I see a felted accessories clutch in it's future.) The newest issue of Knitscene with some great designs, including a Kate Gilbert felted strawberry purse and some super cute stitch markers - one even had a little yarn and needles on it! My camera doesn't take great closeups to share that though.

Thank you so much, secret pal!

Edited to add that today (Monday the 14th) I opened my e-mail and my secret pal got me Glee! Yay! I've been wanting to knit that for quite some time! Thanks so much!

I'm finally doing it!

Socks - they're so fun - you can buy cute socks at the store for so cheap! I love wearing fun socks. But, I've always had this craving to knit my own socks and have been collecting yarn for it for some time - heck - every secret pal I've had has even sent me sock yarn!

So when I went to D.C. this past weekend, I jumped right in and started to make a sock. I used Cat Borhdi's book, Socks Soar on Two Circulars, and got to the heel turn! This is the funny part - the directions start to confuse me. You can't tell from the photo, but I've inserted a lifeline after my heel turn because I don't know that I understand the directions to pick up the gusset stitches properly. I wish I had the book with me to show the directions, but they confuse me at this point! I'll have to try working on them this weekend and post more later!

My First Trip to Maryland Sheep & Wool

And what a trip it was!

We got there around 9 a.m. - VERY crowded. In fact, the main road inside the festival looked like this:

I went straight to The Fold to get some Socks that Rock, and found this:

So I had to get in line. There were actually two lines:

But, in 1 hour and 45 minutes, I made it through and bought this:

That would be Socks that Rock from left to right in Jewel of the Nile, Sherbet, Hard Rock, Waterlilies and Romancing the Stone. Some very nice ladies standing in line in front of me (and I forgot to ask for their names so I aplogize) grabbed the Hard Rock and Sherbet for me as I couldn't even get to that side of the booth. In the line to buy, I met a nice girl from Chicago with her non-knitting sister there who had a Green Gable in blue on! Very pretty!

That day was so much fun! We only stayed until around 1 p.m. - and the Socks that Rock are all that I purchased - some for me, some for gifts. Oh, and in keeping with the sock theme...I actually starting knitting something new, but that's for another post!