June.....

The 4x2 Rib Socks KAL with Mom,

Yay, I got them finished and my Husby loves them.

They aren't blocked yet but aren' t they nice?

Gotta love the colour variation.

Mom and I joined a Charlotte's web shawl kal at Knitwerkx that started June 26/07. I am using SRK Super 10 cotton in 5 colours and 3.25mm circ to make a Beach Wrap for me. I am nowup to row 27 at the first colour change. I though the way the pattern is written up is kinda wonky but I got it figured out and am catching on to how they are doing it. I had trouble with the first 20 or so rows doing the set up of the first lace patt and gradual increases. Now, that I have a bit of fabric on the needles, it is starting to make much more sense and I can start to see where I am going with this. Mom was participating in this kal too but has dropped out, feeling she is not ready to tackle this with so many socks on the needles. Multi tasking is not one of her strong suits anymore and the lure of socks is just too strong for her to think shawl. This is the start of my Charlotte's Web Beach Wrap. I am have started the second colour now.

I was feeling the call of the Harris Tweed Gedifra Sportivo and so I took a bit of time and worked a few rows of Serrano (lace cardigan) from Knitty the week of June24/07. Long term for sure but oh how nice it is going to be when done. No pics yet.

I knit more of sock #1 of Sockbug's Lacy Scallops the week of June24/07. I think the 'official' two person kal is mebbe dead? thinking one day it might be revived though so I am not pushing the end of sock one and doing of sock two. No pics of this yet either though I guess I should take some soon. The Koigu I am using is looking very nice imo.

How come it is that when you get 2 inches into that awesome classic 4x2 ribbed sock that your brain goes on holidays and you just can't manage to count to 4 anymore?

Ok like I needed to start a new project, but I have started a knit along with my Mom two days ago. She's making socks for my nephew, I though for a Christmas pressie but I think Mom probably won't be able to wait to give them to him once they are done. Mom loves help to get the sock started and joined so I cast on the first sock for her Tuesday evening. She is using Gedifra Sportivo using no pattern but what I tell her. A classic man's sock in a 4x2 ribbing letting the colour do the work. She knows the basics for heels, gussets, and toes, even though she so totally second guesses herself into non-confidence land. I cast on 66 sts, on her new 2.25 Hiya Hiya 120cm circ and proceeded to join and do the two first rounds. As I was doing this I expressed my opinion that since this yarn comes in 50g balls that she should do two at the same time! Well, Mom's comment was I already mess one up I don't want to do two! LOL. So we stuck with one sock. I gave her the ready to go newly born sock wannabe and said there you go, already for you to do your thing! Mom's panic was starting to permeate to my side of the table with the what do i do now attitude of a pattern knitter with no pattern. Finally Mom said, I can't do this I don't have a pattern. Confident in her longtime knitting skill, and also knowing that it doesn't matter if she has a pattern or not, and I was confident that she will still mess it up plenty for me to fix, I said to her, 'You don't need a pattern! Continue the rib till you get to the heel. Do the heel flap, you know how, then the gussets, you know that too, then the foot and toe. It's easy. You know how to do it!' Ok well EXCUSE ME! for being wrong. One glitch that I didn't take into account... the fact that we are doing a 6stitch repeat for 11 repeats so that 30 sts are on needle one and 36 sts are on needle 2. Ok this is a problem? not really, but in Mom's eyes it's panic time again. I calmly explain how she is going to move a few sts from one needle to the other come heel time and proceed from there but this concept is just beyond desperate Mom's grasp. My next comments are classic. Ok Mom don't worry about it, it will be fine. We will deal with it when the time comes and it will work ok. The look of panic now changes to that slightly scared unsure look of a dear caught in the headlights. This is how the 4x2 Man's Classic Sock Knit along with Mom started.
I am using my new 2.0 mm Hiya Hiya 120cm circ and Gedifra Sportivo in colourway 5768 and to further add interest I decided to do two socks at the same time. I set mine up with two socks on one needle and liked it. I called Mom to ask her to bring her other ball of yarn with her when she came over the next day. I gave her no choice. Simply said I was casting on sock #2, she was to knit it up to the same length as sock #1 then they would go on the needles together. This is both of our first time at 2 socks at once on one circ. I will keep you posted on how it goes.

interrupting the updating for a special announcement...

May I introduce the Nipissing University Class of 2007

(ok the sixth of seven commencement ceremonies for 2007 there's a lot more grads than pictured here)

Receiving her Bachelor of Science Degree,

Hooded in the appropriate colours for a 4 year science degree

Look a Hoodie!

the Proud Graduate and the Proud Gramma

.... and the Proud Parents too....

Pictures of my daughter's Grad from Nipissing University. She's now a real person and no longer a student (at least for a little while) My husby and I are so very proud of her accomplishments. She plans to continue her education but not until she works for a bit and earns a bit of money to pay for more schooling! LOL!

On to March, Marchin' right along...

Teaching my son's girlyfriend got me back in the mood to do a bit of crocheting. Finished projects in crochet were Pretty Dishcloth, an internet freebie pattern and I did it in an orange/yellow pink veri cotton with blue edging. Fire Blossom 9- inch Dishcloth. Again an internet freebie pattern in pink/white veri cotton again with blue trim. As I was working with Girlyfriend teaching her pattern reading by this time, I had fun with it but didn't get many finished objects done this month. I did a Grandmother's Favourite knit cloth as I was just feeling the need to do it. I used a lime green/ blue veri cotton for this one.

Missing my knitting, hit home with the cloth, and I was well enough, just barely, to hear my sock wool calling to me again.

I have the most wonderful surgeon in the whole world. I have every confidence in her as a doctor and she is just a very caring and extremely nice person. She took such awesome care of me during my illness and surgeries and all she did in return is call me a trouble maker. Ok I give her that one, I did get really, really sick, and if i had just gotten better without all the complications then I wouldn't have hogged so much of her time! LOL. She really is wonderful and caring and I really appreciate the extra time she has given me. When I had my first surgery in November, she saw my slippers and loved them and I made her a pair too. She said they were perfect and that she really loved them when I gave them to her.

I really felt since she went the extra mile for me, that I needed to do more than just a pair of slippers this time around. I decided she needed a pair of hand knit wool socks, and I needed to make her a pair of hand knit wool socks to say thank you to her. This is how the Little Shells Mini Sock-a-long, with Nicole and I, got started. I used Socka in 'blau tweed' colour 1049 and 2.0mm needles.

They turned out quite lovely in my opinion and my Doctor said she loved them. I they were very worth making.

The Cold of February Spent Inside

For February, basically down for the count, 100% recuperation and knitting time, that is when I could keep my eyes open (good drugs, prescription of course, can do that to you LOL!)

First and foremost was finishing my Fleece Artist Mohair Shawl (stage left) ... cause I wanted to snuggle in it ASAP. I bought the yarn on holidays, summer 2006 and proceeded to design my own simple design shawl. The colourway I picked, and yes it was so very hard to pick just one colourway, is shades of blues and greens. The colourway reminds me of the day we were boating our way through downtown Huntsville (Ontario) where we were visiting family and taking a nice summer holiday.

Glitten's (stage right) for my Husby, again of my own design, were next to come off my needles. We do a fair amount of winter heating with wood and he wanted something he could work his chain saw with to cut wood in the winter and still be able to keep his hands warm. I used some very old discontinued Braemar yarn. It is a wool/acrylic blend in a black/white/blue rag style colourway. Now my brother-in-law wants a pair too. I have started them but not finished them. Oh well there's always next winter.

Next was a blue hat for my granddaughter with novelty yarn trim. Perfect for a 9 year old girl, but sorry no pic of it right now.

A lacy scarf that I wanted to try the pattern out. The pattern was a free internet pattern and I can't recall it's name right now. I loved the look of the stitches and plan to make a 'real' scarf from that pattern one day. When I do I will post a pic then. I used a skein of slightly fuzzy acrylic from my odds and ends stash and ran out of yarn half way through the scarf. It resembles a large lacy dishcloth much more than a scarf but since it's acrylic I couldn't imagine using it for dishes. Ewwwww..... LOL.

The last finished project for February was for me. A gifted Fleece Artist Mitten's Kit that I have been petting for a long time. I had a strand of Merino and a strand of Mohair together for a wonderful thick comfy pair of mittens with enough left over to make a matching headband. I now have some nice warm gear for walking in winter!

In and among all this I found time to teach my son's girlyfriend to crochet. She can knit... sort of... LOL but it's much too slow for her. In her words, "Lets crochet instead! I hear it's much faster!" Well I taught her and she learned quickly. I have some very cool slightly misshapen sc, hdc, dc, and tr dishcloths added to my dishcloth wardrobe. Excellent starter projects as they are easy, quick to do, and you really can't mess up a dishcloth. If it's full of mistakes, it really doesn't matter as they will still wash your dishes. She had a lot of fun picking colours from my cotton stash and learning a new craft.

Dishcloths are done, and now she knows how, now on to a real project! A blanket for her baby sister for a Christmas present. LOL! I wonder how much of a baby her sister will be when, if ever, she actually receives this blankie as a present?

The other thing I did to keep me down and resting was have my husby make me some home made drop spindles so I could start to learn to spin.

Spinning... Wow! Something I have thought of for quite a while but never thought it would ever come about . I never even mentioned to anyone that I was interested. I already get enough strange looks over my totally addicted crafting obsessions!

Jan 2007 Update

After New Year's had come and gone I got back down to business. Since I was going back in hospital for more surgery ( I actually had three surgeries from November/06 to end of January/07) and my old slippers I used during the first surgery had huge holes in their bottoms I set out to make me new hospital slippers. I make a nice sock style slipper using my Knifty Knitter Loom. I use an acrylic bulky yarn, two strands held together to make a nice dense and soft, very thick slipper that wears like iron. I knew I would have a number of days in hospital and months of recuperation after the upcoming two surgeries and bought some new flannel PJ's to lounge and knit in. The pair I chose to take to hospital with me are my bright pink Jammies that are covered in white sledding polar bears wearing red toques! So obvious choice of colour for my new slippers was of course fuzzy purple! Very cool hospital attire donchathink? Sorry I can't find pics. I must have forgotten to take them. Not that it it an excuse but I really wasn't feeling well that day.....

more updating

After Mom's Rapid River socks were gifted, we found they were just a titch small so I frogged back the toes and redid them up with the little extra length added in. A simple enough process except for the woven in ends that were next to totally impossible to find and pick out and the extremely frustrating job of un-kitchenering after a couple washings and a day or two of wearing . It took a bit to convince Mom that they were indeed in need of another half inch or so of length. I was having nightmares of her ripping a finger through the lacey eyelet holes as she is yanking at them to make them stretch over her heel. UGGG! But she loved them and didn't want me to change them. Isn't that nice. I finally had to get tough though and let her know that she would NOT be pleased when they were ruined, if she didn't give them to me to fix.

*I have learned a valuable lesson from that.*

Today's valuable lesson: 'NEVER, NEVER kitchener and weave the ends in until BOTH socks are done, (in case you change your mind on foot length as you are finishing up sock #2) and BOTH socks are tried on and fit ok. Then comes the kitchener stitch.'



I don't remember when it came about, but after Mom's first pair of hand knit socks she wanted more! Imagine that. That's when I got out the big guns! I told Mom that since I don't have time to make socks for everyone and she has her pair that if she wants more she can make them herself. *now wishing I could shoot myself with the big guns more days than not because of this decision* Don't get me wrong, Mom can knit. She taught me to knit after all when I was a girl. Problem is Mom is 80 yrs (yay for her! what an accomplishment!) but her eyes just don't see as well as they used to. With a number of lessons in sock making, Mom has it down pretty good now and we have the Dance of the Socks happening.

1. I get her started. She likes it when I start it for her and I really don't mind,


2. then she knit's some.


3. At this point she either messes the pattern (no hard lace patts for Mom thank you LOL) or drops a stitch or two.


4. Mom brings it back to me


5. and I fix it for her. Like I said Mom's eyes have seen better days (excuse the pun) and it's much easier for both of us if I just fix it LOL.


6. Mom gets it back and works some more till another boo boo occurs


7. Mom brings it back to me


8. and I fix it again.

This is the Dance. This continues on till Mom's finished a pair of socks. In fact Mom is finishing lots of socks. Me? well I tend to spend my time fixing Mom's socks and not working on my socks when Mom is over, and Mom's been over a lot lately. But more on this some other time. I will post pics of Mom's socks too.

The Promised Picture

Here's the pic's of Mom's Christmas Pressie Socks.

Click on the pic to see the stitch detail.

This is the River Rapids Pattern from Sockbug's site.

Sockbug's patterns are awesome!

Gotta make a list

Wonderful husby and sometimes wonderful son are putting up the first shelving unit of my "Wool Wall". I talked him, or mebbe my overgrown stash convinced him, that I needed a wall of cubbies here in my spare bedroom (aka knitting/puter room) I am so happy that at least some of it will be up for me to use. But better, that means the second and larger part will be started out in the garage! YAY! I will start to organize my yarn and ufo's as I fill the cubbies up with yummy stash. I have decided as well that I need a list. Or maybe even Lists. I will try to get perhaps a ufo list and/or a fo list and maybe even a stash list. Now won't that be fun? I have heard that online there are worksheets/spreadsheets that can be used for stash. I will have to go looking for something. Either that or take some time to work something up on my own spread sheets. Well there's another project for me to do.

Oh ya, the toe up socks are no longer. At least for a day or two. I messed up my increases when I was almost done the toes and didn't have the patience to frog back looking for the missed inc's. Actually I figured it would be easier just to start over for the little I had done and I can use the extra practice at a new technique.

Ta for now, husby just came through with tools in hand.

Back again

It's been a busy day here today. Which is nice as it keeps the day from dragging but it's not nice because I didn't get as much time to knit today and I would have liked. I am going to rush through this post though and then go put my feet up and continue on with my very first toe up sock. More on the later though.
Back to my updates.
I worked in husby's Columbine socks (see previous post) in hospital with my first surgery. After I was able to knit again I finished them off and worked on a Christmas gift pair of socks for my Mom. She was always saying how much she would love a pair of hand knit socks but never came right out and asked me to make her a pair. She would always leave off at maybe some day you might have some time to make some in my size but I know how busy you are and all... Nothing like a subtle hint eh? LOL. Anyways, I used Austermann's Step yarn, the yarn with the Aloe in it, for a treat for her feet, in colourway 03 Gras, the green/taupe using the River Rapids Sock pattern from Sockbug's site. It turned out great and I actually had them done in time for Christmas.(though I ended up miscalculating how big Mom's feet are and had to rip down the toe and lengthen the socks a bit after Christmas)

OH NO I just went looking in my puter for a pic of these socks and didn't find one. I guess I forgot to take one. I will have to take a pic next time Mom's over for a visit.

Gotta go and knit, Ta for now.

Good Bloggy Morning

Yes I am back, back the next morning. Now you can pick yourself up off the floor and continue to read my update! ROFL


My Husby LOVES hand knit socks Aren't I the lucky knitter? I have made him a number of pairs of socks during my absentia from blogland. Good thing for me he doesn't love sweaters huh?





After the Sassy Stripes socks, I chose to use Camo Bernat Sox to make this pair for him. (Socks to the left, stitch detail to the right)







Next in line was this pair of socks again in Bernat Sox ( I was gifted some from a wonderful friend and hit a clearance when they were selling out the last of it down a the mill ends store)



Now if I had a memory I could tell you what pattern I used ... or sometime I might go and look it up, but not now, sorry, but notice the garter stitch short row heel and garter stitch toe. Very nice to knit up and my husby says very nice to wear as well. There are still no holes in these socks, and as you can see by the pics that they have been well worn, so I must report that the garter stitch heel and toe wear as well as a heel flap. And they look really cool too!




Then there was these. This is the Columbine pattern from Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles by Cat Bordhi Husby took me to Cloth and Clay last summer and treated me to some goodies (my first Addi circ and a few other goodies) so I treated him to his own choice of whatever sock yarn he wanted for socks for himself. (Of course I made him pay for it all *snicker, grin*) He chose Meilenweit Mega Boots yarn by Lana Grossa in colouway 712. (Yes GOOD taste)

I enjoyed doing this pattern very much. Simple lace or should I say openwork as this is a guy's sock.. LOL was fun to do. I haven't knit lace in a long long time and my husby just loves his socks. I ask him again and again what pattern he would like for his next pair of socks and he keeps referring back to his Columbines!

Gotta go untangle a skein of sock yarn that I tried to ball up in a rush the other night. All I ended up doing was causing a tremendously horrid mess of it all. I refuse to take a pic of the mess as it would so totally embarrass me to have anyone out of my house knowing how badly I mangled a *good* ... *extremely good* skien of sock yarn. I promise to tell and show you what it is but not until it's balled and looking as it should. Ta for now.

UM, Sorry, but i didn't lie did i...

Went out with husby to so a few errands and then came home and slept the whole afternoon away. My lovely man woke me to get up for hotdogs for supper. Who could ask for anything more! ( I am not complaining, they were made for me! WOOHOO! and I happen to love hotdogs) I threw together a couple quickie salads for us and supper was awesome. Now I am here blogging again as I said I would be but I have a dilema. House starts in about 6 minutes and ... well.. I just can't miss it. Sorry :( Yes I know it's a rerun on Friday night but I am as addicted to House as I am to yarn. Mebbe I will bbl. Ta for now.

Ok it's update time...

Quick synopsis of my past year... I have been basically sick since last May/June and on some real good drugs (prescription of course) Blogging was very low on my list of priorities as sitting at the puter much of the time just was not the sensible activity for me. I have had 3 surgeries and many many tests since then, 5-6 months off work and feeling much better now though still in recovery mode. (No it wasn't cancer, just some stuff that needed taking care of)

Now back to last year....
After the knittig olympics, I knit a pair of socks for my husby. Used the same pattern and yarn as my Olympic Socks just a different colour. Here's the pic.

Heading out for a bit of a thread hunting trip with husby. Be back later to finish updating. (No Nic I am not lying. I will be back, and I know what you are thinking)

Need Pictures...

Ok so I still don't have pictures. I have several pairs of socks done for my husby that I need to photograph but they are in the wash still. When I get them all clean I will take pics of all of them. They are the socks that I have made during my time of absentia from Blogland. Since then I have finished Little Shells Socks and taken a picture of them as they are to be gifted. I have also finished Field of Flowers Socks for myself, well actually I am grafting the toe as I speak and have 4 ends to sew in on each sock then they are finished. I will wash and block them today. It might be spring here but my feet are cold and I am anxious to be wearing my new socks. Conwy (another sock for me) from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush is on the foot of the second sock. I planned to finish that before starting Lacy Scallops a free pattern from Sock Bug but I would rather have it as an alternative so I can put down Lacy Scallops when I get frustrated from messing it up so much LOL (Nic u know what I mean) It won't take long to go down that second foot and finish up the pair anyways. So back to my needles and the grafting of the toe, then on to a website that can tell me how to do a crochet cast on.... and Lacy Scallops Socks will be born.

WOW It's now almost April...

and how time flys. I have been a very very bad blogger. Ok I have been a nonexistant blogger. I will do a very quicky update, been a busy almost year, I have had many health concerns (no nothing really serious) that have kept me down from doing my normal activities, and just life in general tends to get in the way of many of my plans. I have completed mostly socks over the last winter. Honestly best description is "ADDICTION" LOL. My name is Lyz and I am addicted to sock knitting. I am also 'Smitten' for Mittens' too. I will take pictures soon of my FO's (mostly socks for my husby) and get them posted. In the mean time I am off to knit socks and finish up a pair in the Little Shells Pattern which is a free online pattern to which I don't have a link handy but will try to get up on the blog. These socks are turning out very very pretty IMO and are going to be a special gift for a special Doctor that has taken awesome care of me this winter.
'Till next time.... happy KNITTING (and crocheting)