Look Elizabeth! I made a sock!

I am sharing a conquest for the Yarn Along this week.  The conquest of the sock.  A friend of mine gave me a bag full of tangled yarn and some nifty knitters.  This was mainly for the kids to use but after some time spent separating and pulling out knots, this emerged:

This yarn ball is the size of her head!  I have no idea what kind of yarn this is.  I'm sure it was bought at a chain craft store so its probably "plastic."

So out I blurt, "I could make all of you slippery socks with that."  What was I thinking?  I can't make socks!

So what you thought happened did.  They all looked at me wide eyed and amazed and now I am promised to make at least 4 pairs of socks that I don't even know how to begin!

Now I'm a mommy on a mission.  To overthrow any inhibitions I have about making something that seems so complicated.  I got out the yuckiest yarn (a small ball that was pulled out of the bag gifted to me) and my only pair of DPNs (size 9) and searched Ravelry for a beginner sock pattern.  I found this, printed it out, and got to work.  I made the cuff (knit and purl).  No problems.   Then the leg (knit, knit, knit)  I love how knitting in the round produces all those little "v"s.  I really don't like to purl.  My purling is loose and my stitches come out all uneven.  Now listen, I knew no one was going to be wearing this sock so I didn't follow the length requirements.  I don't think I was anywhere even close to the gauge.  I just wanted to do it so when I was tired with some part I moved on.  Then I made the heel and turned the heal.  Connected everything with the gusset and then made the foot and decreased for the toe.  I stopped there.  I'll learn the kitchener's stitch another day.

This is not a sock for wearing.  It is a victory sock.  You know, like a trophy that you hang on the wall.  Not my best work but a GOOD first try! (if I may say so myself -hee hee)

Oh and I am IN LOVE with Elizabeth Zimmerman.  Every chapter in this book is like a knitting lesson with a close friend.  I haven't tried anything from the book yet but I've learned so much already.  And - if Elizabeth can cheer herself through a snowy April with some knitting -  I think I can make it through March.

Yarn Along::Calorimetry calamity and other hat failures

Joining Ginny in her Yarn Along again.  She has a giveaway this week too.  Talk about a hank of yarn making my hart pitter patter.

So I saw this pattern on Ravelry.  I thought to myself, "Wow, that girl is cool.  I'd love to have a headscarf thingy like that.  I DO have a problem always having to wear my hair down and then suffer through hat head the rest of the day..."

And my hands were itching to knit something.  Something fast and fun and something for me.

Well I have to say that I am not as cool as that girl.  Especially when my Calorimetry scarf looks like it belongs on Laura Ingalls.  For some reason it is way too wide for my head.  I checked my gauge and it was pretty much right. But alas... 

I've had this problem with sewing stuff for me too.  I can never get it to look like it does in the picture.  Humph!

I also made and almost finished a Thorpe.  I posted about that a while back.  BUT  after I was done with the double points I transferred it onto a size 10 needle and not a 9 like I was supposed to.  I was being cheap and not buying what I needed.  Well, I'm about to take it all out and try again.  All is well, I just need to get too it before all the snow melts.  (I don't have too much to worry about since we have almost 2 more month of it!)

Right now I am reading  "Expressions: Taking extraordinary photos for your scrapbooks and memory art."  I saw on Mt. Hope Chronicles this book but the library only had one that looked different.  When I click on the "look inside" the book on Amazon it takes me to the book I have.  So... maybe I do have the right book.  I like the one I'm reading none the less.  I still need to take a class on photography someday.  I just got to the chapter on lighting.  I'm hoping I'll have a few tricks to try tomorrow!

Yarn Along :: Thorpe

Last week I was so inspired by all the yarn along ladies!  Thank you for visiting and commenting too!  It's so neat to see that you guys are really out there.  All those posts are not not just pages on the computer but there are REAL people behind each one.  Who knew?  Hee hee.

So Wendy mentioned the Thorpe and I had to laugh.  My second daughter had just asked for a hat just like that.
 On the needles it goes!
Well, not until after a trip to the yarn store for yarn and double pointed needles.  I got the yarn that the pattern calls for and yum, it's so soft.  I think that I have officially become a yarn snob.  I walked through Michaels and felt each of the yarns and most of them felt so scratchy.  I really see knitting as an experience for me and I want it to be soothing and comforting.  Expensive yarn and bamboo needles seem to do the trick -
(I think I'm in trouble)

I don't know if it is because I'm a DPN rookie or not but putting 4 stitches on 4 needles (that seemed to be a size too small for the yarn) was tough.  As I was struggling through the first few rows I was wondering if this kind of knitting is good for me (you know, the experience).  This seemed too unruly and having to restart over and over was making the awesome yarn get all fuzzy.  I made it through and right now I'm not minding it so much. This picture is me in the middle of putting it on the circular needles (a bigger size too - I hope that doesn't make it too big!)
The pink my daughter chose is amazing.

The book is A Sane Woman's Guide to Raising a Large Family by Mary Ostyn.  It's very comforting reading a book by a woman who understands my heart.  It's like reading a conversation with a friend.  She has been there - double my family.  Wow, she's really been there.  In one of the first chapters she talks about how hard it was to share a baby sling with a relative.  She felt it in her heart and stomach that this was a sign of the end of babies.  The week before I started to read the book I had the same thing happen over a plastic potty chair.  It's hard for people to understand what getting rid of the potty chair really means.   I was so blessed to then read her experience and know that I'm not crazy!
I found the book randomly on the shelf in the library.   I think that the librarians ordered it just for me.  hee hee.

Easter Reading

Easter always sneaks up on me.  While I am so excited that the snow has melted and we can venture outside without our gear, I just can't get my mind around the fact that Easter is right around the corner.  This year I am trying not to be so last minute as I have been in the past few years.

One thing we do get to do every year is read a few of our favorite Easter books.  While some of them are about the real meaning of Jesus death and resurrection, there are some other beautifully written books out there that really capture my heart.

We were at the book store today and I had to get my hands on my very own copy of this:



There are a few rare gems out there that are so well written that no matter how many times I read it, it almost makes me cry.  Books like Charlotte's Web, The Animal Hedge, and The Paper Princess.

In this story there is a bunny and she has hopes to be one of the five Easter bunnies that deliver the eggs each year.  No one thinks that she can do it and "The little girl Cottontail grew up to be a young lady Cottontail.  And by and by she had a husband, and then one day, much to her surprise, there were twenty-one Cottontail babies to take care of."  Hee hee, isn't that so cute!

Well this mama bunny really shows them that she is wise, kind, and swift, but also the bravest of all bunnies!  I'm so happy this book has become a tradition in our family to read every year.