There will be some 2009 Rockin Sock Club spoilers in this post, so look away if you don’t want to read about the March socks.

I haven’t been blogging very regularly, but I’ve still been knitting.  There have been some inspiring sock pattern books published in the last few months, and I can see many more socks coming off my needles this summer.

First, I finally knit a pair with the Patons Stretch Socks yarn.

They are quite soft and comfortable, and go very well with jeans.  This picture was taken after two trips through the washer and dryer, and they’re in good shape with only a little pilling.  I have to be careful knitting with this yarn, though.  If you don’t keep an even tension, and stretch the yarn too much while knitting, you can end up with two socks of visibly different size.

I recently received a copy of Wendy Johnson’s Socks from the Toe Up, and I want to knit every single pattern.  Gorgeous socks, knit in yarns that make my credit card tremble in anticipation.  I had never knit a short row toe before, so I grabbed a skein of Araucania Ranco multy, and knit basic stockinette socks with short row toes and heels, using one of the basic patterns from Wendy’s book.

I tossed away the ballband from this one, so I don’t know which colour of “multy” this one is.  The Araucania is not a very soft wool, but it is nice enough and has some nylon in it, so maybe it will wear better?  I love the short colour bursts in this yarn; it gives lots of different colours without a pronounced striping effect.

The March sock for the Rockin Sock Club was designed by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, and stretched my sock skills to the limit.

The pattern is called “Rogue Roses”, and that panel of purl stitches and rosebuds twists diagonally across the leg of the sock.  The cuff has a picot edge, something else I had never tried before, plus the socks are knit as mirror images of one another.  My aching head!  It was worth it.  I love these socks, which look alarmingly torqued on their own, but fit perfectly once slipped on the feet.  The yarn is Socks that Rock mediumweight, in the members-only “Gertrude Skein”.  I’d love to make a quilt in those colours. 

My fabric stash has been sorely neglected while I’ve been so caught up in sock knitting.  I will have some quilting photos to share soon, though.

I’ve really been looking forward to the next sock club shipment.  January’s “Queen of Beads” socks were fun to knit, and I finished them!

The STR “lightweight” yarn makes a warm and thick sock.  I’ve been wondering what the other weights were like, and today I found out.  The March club yarn is a colourway that I think is just crazy beautiful, and it’s in mediumweight.

I really like the pattern that came with it, too, and probably will cast on tonight.  I can do that without guilt because, drumroll please, the Clapotis is done!  Photos soon…I’m still of two minds about blocking it.  I like the bumpy unblocked texture, but I’d also like the extra width I’ll get from it if I stretch out the dropped stitches.  A decision to ponder as I wind the new sock yarn.

Of course, I could not resist starting the Rockin’ Sock Club socks.  I was a little nervous about knitting with beads, but I’m getting the hang of it, and it hasn’t been as slow as I thought it would be.  This is working up to be a nice sock.

I resisted knitting the pattern as written, since I’m so fond of toe-up socks, but since I want to learn some new techniques, I decided to follow along.  I’m really glad  I did.  This pattern is elegant.  The tubular cast-on is so neat and extremely stretchy.  After I took this photo, I knit the heel flap, and was  impressed by the way the stitches transition from the beaded lattice design to the slip stitch heel pattern.  I’m generally no fan of flap-and-gusset heels, but I’m actually liking this one.  Poor Clapotis is taking a back seat this week, but I’m working the decrease rows now, so the end is near.

If you don’t want to see the latest contents of the Rockin’ Sock Club, look away.  I’m going to show the yarn.  This is the first time I’ve been a part of the club.  Last year, I was too late to register, and I hadn’t actually knit anything with STR yet.  It was a lot of money to spend on a year’s worth of unknown yarn.

Having knit a pair of socks with STR lightweight, I’ve slowly been converted.  I loved the colours from the start, but that tightly twisted merino took some getting used to.  I like its springiness, but it tends to coil back on itself as it’s pulled off the ball, and that can drive me nuts sometimes.  The socks I knit in Lemongrass were uncomfortable on first wearing, but I should have been patient.  With a little time, they have become soft and comfortable.  I like a warm pair of socks, and they’re great that way.  So now I am a club member.

In addition to the yarn, there is a lovely pattern by Sivia Harding–with beads!  I’ve never knit socks (0r anything else) with beads before, and there are some techniques in this sock pattern that I’ve never tried, so it will be a challenge.  There is a tiny skein of  “emergency sock yarn”, lots of info about the dyeing process for this yarn, and a nifty keychain and pin with the club logo.   The yarn is STR lightweight and the colour is amazing:

It’s called “My Blue Heaven” and it reminds me of the ocean (I was born on the east coast).  Am I the only one who smells yarn?  This skein has a bit of the vinegar scent that still lingers on it from the dyebath.  I like that.  It’s taking a lot of willpower to not cast on right now.  Any bets on how long I will last?

I don’t have much in the way of new knitting to show.  A few weeks ago, I picked up the Clapotis-in-progress, and it has taken over all of my knitting time ever since.  I’m on ball #5 of the Melody “superwash” and will probably use up 6 balls by the time it is done.  The random striping is so much fun to watch!

This photo is a good colour match to real life. 

Once the Clapotis is done, I have a feeling I’ll be casting on a new pair of socks.  I found this at Chapters on the weekend:

If you love knitting socks with yarns like Koigu KPPM, Shibui Sock  and the like, you need this book.  There are even a couple of toe-up patterns in there.  I don’t know how I’m going to decide which to knit first, but I’ll have time to think about it while the Clapotis gets done.

I wanted to get a picture of my new mittens before I wear holes in them!

I knit them with Blue Moon Fiber Arts’ Socks that Rock lightweight, in the Peaseblossom colourway.  The pattern is of my own devising, and as such needs a bit of tweaking.  I should have done another inch of stockinette below the thumb before I started the ribbed cuff.  Yes, I knit them from the fingertips down!  I figured if it works for toe-up socks, it should be okay for mittens.  And they fit quite well, despite being a tad too short.  For a sock yarn, STR sure makes a warm pair of mittens.  Great for dog-walking!

The jar in the photo is one of my best friends at the moment.  One of my quilting buddies noticed my eczema-ravaged hand (yes, it only attacks my right hand), and told me about this cream, Glaxal Base.  I know I sounded extremely skeptical (thanks for persevering, Dianne) because I have tried almost everything to soothe the itching/burning/cracking/bleeding and nothing has worked.  Most creams make it worse!

I’ll spare you any before/after photos, and just tell you that after *three days* of using this stuff my hand looks perfectly smooth and normal.  For the first time in 5 years of winters, I can knit/quilt/craft without pain.  The skin doesn’t even look dry.   Joy! 

Okay, I think I’ve  used up this month’s allotment of exclamation points.  But I warn you, I’m expecting a new “block of the month” quilting project in the mail soon.  There will be more exclaiming once the stitching begins.

And it is falling here.  A perfect day to snuggle up with a latte and a good read, like this:

Stitch is a UK-based bimonthly magazine, and it is currently my favourite source of creative ideas in needlework.  The purse on the cover is made of clear PVC sheets, sandwiched around scraps of filmy fabrics and sewn by machine.  I’m thinking that one could do the flower shapes with pale organza instead of plastic, which is a sticky thing to be trying to machine-stitch.  A plastic purse would be a good thing to carry around in today’s snow, though.

Knitting is another good friend to keep nearby on a stormy day.  I have decided to try the Patons Stretch Socks yarn again, and I am much happier with the latest colour scheme.

This colour is called Mineral.  Denim blue, black and red-brown.  I knit a no-brainer stockinette sock, toe-up and with a simple short row heel.  This time, I also experimented with knitting two socks at a time on two circular needles.  While I am converted to circular needles for socks now, I gave up on two-at-a-time.  It was very annoying to be sliding the socks around, and keeping each ball of yarn from tangling with its neighbour–arrggh.  I’m slow enough without extra hurdles!

This is a fun knit, with a funny name.  Sounds a little Star-Trekish to me:  “We are the Clapotis people, from the planet Clapeau” or “I am Clapotis, of Borg”.  At any rate, it is an interesting pattern and I love the yarn I’m knitting it with.

Yes, that’s my foot in the lower right, wearing the lemongrass socks.  I am quite the skilled photographer.

I’m knitting the shawl with Jojoland’s Melody, a fingering weight wool, in colour 29.  The actual colours are a bit darker than the photo suggests.  The wool is soft and not overspun, so it’s a joy to knit with.  However, it is a bit sticky, so the dropping of stitches requires some extra work.  I am skeptical of the superwash claim for this fiber, as the tip of the shawl is felting a tiny bit just from being handled.

I followed the pattern pretty much as written, except for doing a few extra pattern repeats to account for the finer yarn.  I’m working on 143 stitches rather than 107.  It’s still coming along surprisingly quickly, even though I’m going through a bit of startitis and have 3 projects on the needles right now.  More WIP photos tomorrow.

It’s a good thing I was all fired up to take some photos of recent knitting projects…I had to do it twice.  My camera’s memory card and my computer don’t get along, and somewhere between the card and my picture folder, photos magically disappeared forever.  Here’s a retake:

My latest toe-up socks, in STR lightweight’s lemongrass colourway.  The stitch pattern is Roman Rib, from the “Little Box of Socks”.  These were a “do over” project, too.  I was in the middle of congratulating myself for being able to knit a sock without a pattern in front of me.  The rib is easily memorized, and I was knitting a toe and heel that are also easy to do and remember.

Then, after I just finished turning the heel of sock 2, I realized that I had done the pattern stitches over the sole.  D’oh!  Sock 1 had a stockinette sole.  After much tearful ripping back to the toe, I eventually had two matching socks.

Socks that Rock is a really tightly twisted yarn, and I have sensitive feet.  The combination makes these socks a little uncomfortable to wear.  This yarn felt more like cording than yarn, although it is quite soft.  After a 15-minute brisk walk in these socks, the soles of my feet hurt!  They are now officially “bed socks”.  Admit it, you have some (if you live anywhere where it gets cold).  A shame, really, because STR has the most gorgeous colours.  I guess I’ll make mittens out of my other skeins.

Tomorrow, a shot of the clapotis-in-progress.  Assuming the camera and computer kiss and make up.

It seems to be a popular blog pastime this week.  See what Kathleen Taylor’s blaming her for here.

I have never met Karen Irving, but I often stop by her blog to see what she’s knitting.  She’s a much more disciplined blogger than I am, so there’s something new and interesting there almost every day.  Recently, she’s been working on a lovely laceweight version of Evelyn Clark’s Swallowtail shawl.  That reminded me that I finished a worsted weight version months ago and never blogged it, so here’s a pic:

The yarn is a silk and cashmere blend that was a closeout steal at yarn.com.  It ended up being a bit fuzzier than I like, but its softness has won me over.  And the colour was exactly what I wanted (a bit more burgundy than in the picture).  Okay, so I can’t blame Karen for that, but this is all her fault:

I finished this sweater for my husband over the weekend.  I don’t usually love knitting sweaters, but the cabled (!) cotton and silk sweater I knit him years ago is a little the worse for wear.  One of Karen’s blog posts planted the idea in my head that I could maybe try to knit a whole sweater again.  Turns out it’s way easier when I’m knitting for someone else.  A cardigan for me is still in the swatch stage and may remain there for months.  But I am not deprived, I have these:

The Halcyon socks are done!  In Fleece Artist merino 2/6, they are soft and fit like a glove.

With all this finishing of projects, there were a few minutes on Sunday when I had nothing on the needles.  While I was pondering what to do with the Melody superwash wool I acquired a couple of weeks ago, I remembered Karen’s lovely Clapotis.  Guess what I cast on yesterday?  Karen, when I am snuggling under a soft, warm wool shawl, it will be all your fault.