socka socka!

One Jaywalker down, and the second cast on yesterday! I'm happy to have gotten a little pooling on the foot...gives the sock character, and if socks are hand-knit, then out of principle and appreciation for the craft I think they ought to be fraternal. Just my opinion. ;)


I am having such a fun time with the Knittyboard Secret Pal round! I haven't heard anything from my downstream pal, and unfortunately her questionnaire was a bit sparsely answered, but I'm having a good time shopping for her anyway. I think I'll go to a bead/jewelry store near my apartment sometime soon and try my hand at making stitchmarkers. I want to include something handmade in her packages, but I am all knitted out for others at the moment. As a matter of fact, Justin's sock was frogged on Saturday night...I was well into the foot and finally had him try it on, only to find that it was too loose. Oh well! I was getting bored with it anyway. That boy's feet are big!!

My own secret pal has already been so much fun to chat with, even if only through cryptic messages here and there. ;) I am resisting the urge to use my detective skills to uncover her secret identity! Secret Pal rounds are such a great idea...you can satisfy your urge to shop, but since you're not buying for yourself, half the guilt is gone! Plus it's a great chance to make a new friend. <3

It's my last week here in the old department, so I'd better get some work done! Wonder if I'll be able to read knitting blogs at my new job...maybe if I'm sneaky...hey, at least it's not porn, right?

The yarn cuddling phenomenon...surely I'm not alone

I still have a (relatively) small stash, so any new additions are cause for excitement in the casa del RepoRebo. I finally got around to taking a few pictures of my new additions to the fiber family, and what better place to show them off than here on my new blog?



Clockwise:

-two balls of Sierra Collection Peruvian Aran from elann.com, in color Cinnamon. I ordered nine and am using it for Veste Everest. It feels just wonderful, the 20% alpaca really makes it soft and squishy! The yarn is rather loosely plied, which isn't so great, but I'm living with it.

-I had been eyeing this yarn at my LYS, and finally decided to buy it to celebrate my new job...and discovered when I went to the register that it was on sale for 30% off!! I've never seen this yarn anywhere else, and it's so smooth and soft that I sometimes cuddle it while watching TV. *shame* I love the colors and the texture! I don't have a specific project in mind for it, but I think it will make lovely trim for mitten cuffs...once I get around to knitting mittens, that is. A close-up, so you can drool along with me:



-Next up is one ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Wicked. I wanted to try this yarn, since it's so smooth and looks so lovely when knit up, but it's just so damn EXPENSIVE that I only got one ball. Plus I've read that some people really hate working with it, so I figured one ball would be good for an experiment. I'm thinking a shoulder wrap or capelet will be nice knit out of this.

-I got this in the mail yesterday...two hanks of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Bucks bar (one wound into a ball.) I looooove Lorna's Laces. Love it love it LOVE IT. I am a Lorna's Laces addict, and these colors are exactly what I wanted. Now to find the perfect sock pattern for it! I'm thinking Conwy from Knitting On the Road (which I caved and bought at Border's last week) but that could change.

-And finally, Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool Quarters in Clearwater. I'll use it for the Friday Harbor Socks from KOTR. Also wonderfully squishy, and has also been subjected to "yarn cuddling."


I think I can safely say I have enough yarn to last me for some time. And now that I've been assigned my Secret Pal from the Knittyboard Mellow SP, I can use that as an incentive not to spend any more money on yarn for myself!




I'm making slow progress on Veste Everest...the Jaywalker socks are getting most of my attention these days, but I really want to finish the vest before spring, so that I can wear it this season. I had some tension issues the first go-round and ripped back, but now I think things have improved. I'm trying a trick I learned from Nona's blog in order to keep my ribbing looking nice...wrapping the first purl stitch after the knit stitch clockwise instead of counterclockwise. It seems to be tightening things up, but this yarn is so loosely plied that I think I'm going to have to live with the fact that the stitches aren't all going to be perfect and even. I don't think it's going too badly, though.



My first tubular cast-on! That was fun, and looks great to boot.

To the experienced bloggers: can anyone tell me how to edit my HTML to make the subject field wider? I'd like to post the "medium" size pictures from Flickr instead of just the small ones, but as my layout is now, they end up breaking the tables. I can't seem to figure out which part of my HTML to change! If anyone can help, I appreciate it. :D

WIP: Jaywalker socks

I'm making progress on my Jaywalker socks!



These socks are a ton of fun to knit. The pattern makes for a nice, snug sock, and I love the way the diagonal stripes look. I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Watercolor, which I got in a swap--I'm not really a rainbow kind of girl, but I could use a pair of crazy-looking socks! I love the sheen of the yarn, and the colors are really vibrant.



Turning heels is fun. Picking up gusset stitches is NOT. Man, I really hate picking up stitches...I never know if I'm doing it correctly (is it the running bars of the chain stiches I should be going through, or the chain stitch itself?) Plus I always end up having to try three or four times before I can get them picked up evenly.

I had a little trouble with the first few rows of gusset decreases--it took a while before I could get it straight which row to do the decreases, and which row to do the zig-zag pattern. I think I've got it now, and have done about half the total decreases.

The colors in these photos are close to true, but I'd like to get a shot of them in natural light. That might have to wait until the weekend...it's dark when I leave the house and dark when I get home during the week. I'll also get some shots of my progress on Veste Everest, and some recent additions to the stash. <3