Barcelona!

Sometimes you blink and time has flown by. Tomorrow I'm going to Barcelona for a short holiday and next Tuesday I'll be back again. I'll look for yarnshops when I'm there ;) and knit in weird places.

From the bright side of life: I might get the job after all. Nothing is sure, though, so I'll just be a little bit optimistic for now.

Yarn!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you the new additions to 'Le Stash'- collection:


From left to right: 1. Lana Grossa Cotton stretch 2. Trekking Fruit 3. Online Bambou 4.Regia Kaffe Fasset (drewl) 5. Colinette Jitterbug Monet.

I was feeling particularly sad and lonely last monday night. BF was not home and I had just heard at my job that I'll probably won't be working there any more after november 1st. There's just not enough money to keep me eventhough they really like me. So I wondered off around the internet and found myself at wolhalla ordering some things I really wanted. And some needles too. Squee!

CTH Monkeys

Ever since I bought my first two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill Supersocke - they popped in my basket at last years Stitch 'n Bitch day - I've been longing to cast on and try out this delicious soft stoff. The cool colours are to me like honey to a bee. I hoarded more but had not tried this yarn out untill I casted on the third pair for my mom, the pair that just has to be right. Why I waited so long to try out this yarn? No idea. It's a dream to knit with.

One of the great plusses of 100% wool yarn is definetely the butter like softness. CTH is certainly not an exception to this rule. It is soft yet reasonably tightly spun - though not as tight as Jitterbug or STR - and therefore the yarn has a natural negative ease. For my US 7.5 feet I'd need only 56 to 60 stitches on 2,5mm needles and they would fit beautifully with a nice firm fabric.

There are a couple of things that bother me, though. First of all, is the yarn durable or will they wear out relatively fast? Second, I've read about CTH's colors bleeding. Will the colors last? And third, do I really need to handwash them? Or in this case, will it be a big disaster if one of my parents (I'm not going to name one in particular) would accidentally throw them in the washing machine?

Time will tell. In the meantime, I love working with CTH and I love the pattern I've chose. I chose to make Cookie A's Monkey socks but not regular monkeys. I saw these socks and liked them much better than the regular monkeys. Well, I'm going to knit on now and maybe fondle my new stash a little more.

NEW STASH?

HUGE...

See, I can make possitive progress. Not every inch needs to be ripped back.



Even mom's sock's been going just fine... Untill I was checking out my mom's feet. They are HUGE! Just three sizes longer then mine but at least twice as wide. The Waving Lace socks will never never fit.

What to do now. Rip the sock? I had allready past the gusset on this sock and it fits me perfectly. It would be a shame to rip it. If it fits me, it should fit someone else as well like the stickslim SIL who's celebrating her birthday in December. I'll save them for her.

But what to do about my mother then?



Cast on new socks, I suppose.

Frogable

Well, I didn't get a lot of knitting done this week again. Work is just a pain in the but when you really want to knit. Thereby, I had some frogging to do which really doesn't help on the progress front. For example, I started the Waving Lace socks for my mom, but didn't like the way the yarn and the pattern interacted with eachother. So I frogged two inches and started with another pattern (Diamante from Knitty) and I like it so much I'm going to keep it for myself - hate it when that happens. For my mom I grabbed a skein of Lorna's Laces Cool and started a zigzag pattern from a Dutch sock knitting group. It's actually pretty cool yet I don't feel that these should be mine mine mine! In other words, I can give them away when they're done. I had to frog some on these socks too 'cause they were getting rather big on 2.25 mm needles.


Lorna's laces on the left, Sunshine on the right

But, there was a finish this week. This Mama-e's yarn was first going to be socks for an unspecified adult, but alas, the colorway is so sweet that one could get diabetes from wearing them. But perfect for a little girl.

You finish some, you start some

After finishing three pairs of socks my needles have been impatiently waiting for new projects. Three new projects as I have three more birthdays in October.

* Stockinette todler socks for the little girl next door. Mama-e's sweet sock yarn is going to be perfect for these socks. It's soft and the pink-green-white combination should be great for the little girl. I should have them finished by October 13.

* Mom loves pretty things made with care and lots of time. After carefull deliberation I'm going to sacrifice a skein of Sunshine yarn to make her the Waving Lace socks from Interweave's Favourite Socks. Hope that mum will be pleased and I'll finish them in time. They should be finished before October 17.

* Father In Law. He really wants handknit socks like his mother used to make him socks. Simple yarn, simple pattern, size 11. I made BF choose the color from a couple of manly skeins I had in my stash and he chose a skein of Trekking XXl Pro Natura Antraciet. A really nice dark and soft yarn. It's a great pleaure to work with, even if the pattern is simple and the color is dark. I think I'll get some more the next time I order from Wolhalla. These socks should be finished before October 29.

pairs 14 and 15 out of 52

Finally some FO's to show on this blog! I finished both Daan's socks in Trekking sock yarn and my Jitterbug Snake River socks. The trekking was nice to work with, like allways. It knits up fast and the result is a good, durable sock. Hope that the little guy will want to wear them.

The Jitterbug on the other hand was fabulous to work. I really like the tight twist on the yarn, just like Socks that Rocks and Cherry Tree Hill. Really special about this yarn is the awsome coloring. That really makes them stand out. These socks are not perfect. I made some mistakes and they are a little bit too big, but they remind me of the summercamp to Sweden. They are the reward to my hard work at the campsite.


Yarn: Jitterbug Florentine
Pattern: Snake river socks
Gauge: 8spi Needles: 2,5 mm
yardage 260 meters (I have just a couple of meters left!)


I love you little Nebbus.