sorta charade socks

Emma asked us to post a "first" in knitting, and initially I couldn't really think of anything. I'm pretty adventurous, so there isn't much I've never tried. Perhaps my imagination is failing me, though. :D

However, I did recently learn a new technique which I used on my Twisted Sky Socks: knitting socks on two circular needles. Here they are again:



I love this technique so much that I've also used it for my latest pair, the Sorta Charade Socks:



These aren't quite finished yet--I'll get a much better picture once they are.

The Sorta Charade Socks are another first for me. I started out making a pair of the popular Charade Socks (I think you have to be on Ravelry to get the pattern), but ended up adapting that pattern to the sky architecture (used in my Twisted Sky Socks) from Cat Bordhi's book, New Pathways for Sock Knitters. Basically, I ended up taking the stitch pattern from Charade and putting into the Master Sky sock architecture from the book. Not quite an original design, but fun and unique!

One complete Sorta Charade sock:



One nearly-complete Lizard Square:



A little bit of a baby sweater:



(I didn't actually work on this today, but I hadn't shown any pictures of it yet, so...)

We're home, just finished watching both Lost and Grey's Anatomy from last week, and now it's time for bed. Today kind of flew by, but it was a nice Mother's Day.

Nik made breakfast for both me and Mom, and we enjoyed our ocean view for the morning and early afternoon until we decided it was time to head home. The drive was mostly pretty nice, but there was apparently a big accident outside Dundee which caused us to have to detour. What a backup. We crawled along for miles, but eventually made it to Newberg where we stopped for a quick bite to eat at Burgerville before parting with Mom (she was headed to Wilsonville, while we were headed home to SE PDX). Burgerville was giving out free strawberry shortcake for moms today--it was yummy! (Um. I'm not a mom, but Mom shared hers. :D)

My Sorta Charade sock is done but for the toe, so I expect to finish it tomorrow. Will try to get pictures to post tomorrow. Goodnight!

As I mentioned in my last post, we're at Gleneden Beach for the weekend. It's apparently been sunny (if a bit cold) most of the week, but today? Alternately drizzly, foggy, misty, etc., all day. Gray, gray and more gray.

Oh well. I'd still rather be here looking at the ocean than home looking at the street in the rain. :D

All we did today was go into Newport for breakfast (at more like lunchtime). So I've been knitting most of the afternoon/evening, with a bit of reading thrown in. And visiting with Mom and Nik, of course. All in all, a very nice, relaxing day. Despite the weather.

I've made excellent progress on my Sorta Charade socks. The first one has a heel and I'm now working my way down the foot. I'll post photos tomorrow, probably. I also started the February Baby Sweater last night and am now through about three repeats of the lace pattern. Despite looking over the pattern before I started, I didn't notice that there was no mention of buttonholes until you get to the lace section. So...the garter stitch portion at the top has none. Oops. I've come up with an alternate plan for the buttons already, and I think it'll be fine.

I think it's supposed to rain more tomorrow, so there probably won't be any pretty Gleneden photos from me. Maybe I'll steal some more from Mom...

I think this post will be quick and picture-heavy...then I'm going to bed early, in an attempt to make up for the last couple of nights a bit.

Yesterday was fun. When I arrived at Twisted, I had a plan. One of my co-workers is pregnant and expecting a little girl in September, so I've decided it's time for me to finally do some baby knitting. In my blog-reading the other day I saw a sweater that Larissa just finished and thought, "oh, that might be the one!" And I wanted something pink, but not...TOO pink. So I went to the sock yarn wall (I was thinking fingering or sport weight) and landed at the Socks that Rock. I found this:



That's the color Pink Granite, which I really like with the subtle pinks and grays. I think it'll make a great baby sweater.

I brought it over to Emily and and asked her for a baby sweater pattern suggestion. She walked to the other side of the store and came back with a sweater on a hanger. It was the same one I'd just seen on Larissa's blog! (It's Elizabeth Zimmermann's February Sweater from the Knitter's Almanac, by the way.) So that pretty much sealed it for me. Emily convinced me to switch to the heavyweight STR (so nice that you can get Blue Moon's colorways in all sorts of different yarns and weights, isn't it?) to go with the pattern.

I also got these buttons for the sweater:



Now I just need the book!

Somehow, this also came home with me from Twisted:



That's more STR--mediumweight--in Atomic #6. Fell in love with the color at first sight.

When Nik and I got home from our evening out, there were two packages waiting for me. One contained 4 new skeins of Kureyon for my Lizard Ridge and this pretty sock yarn (I had to get it to get the order over the $25 minimum!):



The second package was from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, containing...I'm sure you can guess: More STR! These are all lightweight:



The Knitters Without Borders colorway. This is the one that got me to finally place an order with them. I'd missed the chance to get some when the Yarn Harlot was in town, so I decided to order it. So of course I ended up buying a couple more at the same time...



The Lucy colorway. (I'm a sucker for blue and brown together.)



Space Dust. There were so many beautiful colors to choose from that it was really hard to decide. This one really appealed to me, though.

So in one day, I went from no STR to five skeins in five colorways, in three different weights. Heh.

And, since I'm losing steam and really want to get to bed, just a couple more pictures.

My Charade-but-not-really-Charade sock, as of this evening:



(I'll explain the "not-really-Charade" part in another post soon.)

And Mom's shawl (Follow the Leader), about 34 rows in:



Oh, and I almost forgot. Hi Tammy! (I laughed when I saw your note on my BMFA invoice. :D)

Wow, that's a lot of yarn to wind at once. The Cherry Tree Hill was 2400 yards, making the biggest ball of yarn I've ever seen:



This is going to be a Follow the Leader Faroese Shawl for Mom. Actually, I've already started it and I'm a whole...11 rows in. :)



The sock yarn, Stitchjones Superwash Merino in the Dark and Divine colorway, was only 450 yards. That's nothing! Except that my arms were already tired from winding the lace yarn. Heh. Here it is:



This is, I think, destined to be a pair of Charade socks. I have not yet cast on for these, but I will soon. I'm contemplating doing two at once on two circs...

The sun has finally decided to grace us with its presence, so I hope to have some nice FO photos later on.