There's a new sock in town

I knit a lot of socks. Not as many as some, but I do my part. Mostly lately I've been doing pretty plain vanilla socks, things I can do in meetings and don't take much thought. In fact, I've gone a pretty good way towards using up my sock stash. Granted it was never very large but it was large enough that I haven't been buying it lately.


I did, however, go to Enticements in Decatur on Saturday and saw this Berroco Sox yarn. I've stated before and will again that I'm not usually a big fan of the variagated yarn but this is self-striping - a very different animal altogether. The colors really struck me on this (color #1425) so I bought it and got started on a sock. What about these colors, huh? All my really favorite, really saturated colors. I love it. And looking at the link above, I really, really, (no, really) love the colorways. I think I'm going to have to get me some more of this.



I've decided I must be a Berroco girl because I've been doing tons with it lately and am loving every Berroco yarn I'm getting my hands on. My goodness. You might like to know that they have a Berroco newsletter that's a lot of fun and has links for free patterns and lots of great info. You can sign up from their web site (see the link above). You can also find the link for their blogs from that page. Good stuff, Maynard!

Ode to a Mug

I really like mugs. I have a few mugs in my cupboard. Not as many as I used to. I used to have a wonderful mug collection including a number of mugs from Dunoon Pottery but I lost all of them in a fire a number of years ago. But the ones I have have a special story are of special interest to me.

Now, I don’t go for just any mug. There are criterion.

It has to have some weight – none of those cheap, flimsy things. If it’s going to be called a mug, you gotta know you’re holding on to something. There is a difference between cheap/flimsy and porcelain. Porcelain mugs won't have the same heft but then they have to have the translucence.

Next, it has to have great decoration or design. No ponsy flowers or cute little bunnies. It has to be something interesting.

Then it has to have a good shape. No apples with handles, no swimming pools, nothing that holds 2 drops.

Finally, it has to have at least a 3-finger handle. This is something I learned from a very dear friend of mine named Stephanie. We had a few adventures did Steph and I. But probably the most valuable lesson I ever learned from her was that, to be an acceptable mug (or cup), you have to be able to insert at least 3 fingers through the handle. Think about the genius of it. Haven’t you ever had a mug that held about 3 cupfuls of tea or coffee (or other hot beverage) with a handle that only accommodated 1 finger? How do you hold it up? You know what happens – you burn your fingers and/or you drop hot liquid all over your lap. Right? Three fingers – test it now and save heartache later.

I love this mug.
It has everything.
Substantial and can hold a goodly cup of tea.
The Texas flag and a 4-finger handle.
There’s really nothing more one could ask for.

Portuguese Fisherman's Sweater

This is going really fast and I'm pleased with it so far. I'm thinking I could have started the placket a little sooner to make it a little longer but it's fine. Next time. Also next time I will do what I meant to do here which was, when I got to the placket, increase for every stitch in the placket and then move those extra stitches off onto a holder ready to knit up. That would have been much easier than picking up those stitches later! I did also pick up stitches along the right-side edge for every other row and then knitted them off as I went. That was a good move because it made a neat edge and meant I didn't have the bulk of a seam.

Pics aren't great but...

this gives you an idea.

Please excuse me while I do my happy dance.

I can’t believe I’ve actually almost finished with this beautiful shawl. This is the Paisley Long Shawl from Fiddlesticks minus the fringe which will take a little bit to do but I’m so pleased with it. I did find one mistake as I was blocking it but I can live with it. Ain’t it purty?


If I get a picture of it tomorrow with the fringe I'll post again. It's huge. I can't find my tape measure (yeah, I know, I can't find any of the 50 or so tape measures that I own) but I reckon it's about 7 feet long and about 30 inches across. And I didn't even block it hard. The fringe will add about 11 more inches to the overall length but I think it will set it off beautifully. I have to reiterate that if you want a challenge knitting lace with the best instructions, this is the company to go for. Here's a link to the designs page. I actually bought the kit, something I don't normally do and I made the pattern in the garter stitch it called for, something else I rarely do. I will end up with almost a whole skein of yarn left over. In all fairness, they did recommend 2 skeins if you're not doing the fringe and 3 if you're doing the fringe. I got 3 skeins because I didn't want to get caught short. Nevermind. I think I already know what I'm going to do with the 3rd skein - about 600 yards' worth.

I’ve started a sweater with some yarn that I bought from Stitches a couple of years ago. It was on sale on a cone so I’m hoping that there will be enough for the sweater. Because it was on a cone, I was advised to skein it and wash it before I started working with it, which I did. I also decided I wanted to dye it. It was an oatmeal color but I thought this red might be pretty so I broke out the old kool-ade and dyed away. The red came out a real rustic color so I’m going to just do a basic, rustic pattern and I think I'm going to borrow heavily from the Portuguese Fisherman's sweater I found in the old magazine from the 70's.

Slightly Felted...on purpose

A few years ago I made a sweater from Elsabeth Lavold’s Designer’s Choice Book 1 (click on the next to last image). I made it with her Silky Wool in Lava. I think it’s really pretty but it’s also slightly too large, especially in the shoulders. I’d made it before I’d really figured out how to adjust the pattern for my narrow shoulders.

Yesterday, after I washed it, I decided to try an experiment. I put it in with my dress shirts in the dryer on a delicate cycle and kept a close watch on the time. Silky Wool is made up of wool and silk (silky wool – clever, huh) so I figured it would felt a bit. You know what? It did and it actually worked perfectly. How often does that happen, right? Weren’t you waiting for the punch line to be that it would now fit a small teddy bear? Well, it wouldn’t. It fits me. Perfectly. And it actually looks better with the fabric a little denser. Cool.

Lace Class

On Satuday I finished the last of 3 sessions in the Beginning Lace Class at Lincoln Land. Although we ended up with just 2 students, they were so lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed the class. Both students made great progress on their scarves. Both ladies expressed interest in a knitted doily class and a sock class. If you're in the Springfield area and would be interested in either of these classes, please give Lincoln Land a call at (217) 786-2432 or email the Program Assistant at amanda.willis@llcc.edu to let them know. These are not the classes I proposed for the Spring semester but if there's enough interest, I'm sure they'll get it on the roster for the Spring or perhaps the Summer session. It helps them to know what people are interested in doing and they really do their best to accommodate. If you've never taken a Community Education class with them, you should have a look at their catalogue (click on the link above) because you're sure to find something interesting.

Progress continues on my Paisley Long Scarf. I didn't take another picture because I'm just on the second half, which is a repeat of the first half that I pictured before. Unfortunately, the section I'm on right now is a relatively boring repeat of a filler pattern which has to be repeated 6 times (making 12 repeats in all). The good news is, once I finish these repeats (I have 2 left to do) I'll be on the homestretch. Can't wait to finish and block it although I'm not quite sure where I will have room to block it!