FO Friday 38

Happy Friday! This week went FAST and I'm very excited that it's the weekend. We're going to be hanging out at the beach on Saturday (which we usually do at least one weekend day) if the weather is warm enough. It's supposed to be in the high 60's, so let's hope they're wrong and it's a little warmer! Sunday we are heading to Ink-N-Iron which should be awesome. We've always wanted to go but have never gotten the chance until this year. It's in Long Beach, at the Queen Mary. It will be fun to just walk around, check out the car show and listen to music. After that, we'll probably head to one of our favorite Tiki Bars that is in that area, Don the Beachcombers. We don't get over there as much as we'd like, so it will be nice to get a bite to eat and a few drinks while there. One of my favorite So Cal yarn stores, Alamitos Bay Yarn Company, is in the area as well, so I hope to get a chance to stop by. I'd love to get my hands on some Malabrigo Sock or Madelinetosh Lace. We'll see, since they are only open a few hours on Sundays. With all that going on, I hope to have a chance to get some knitting done, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Now on to awesomeness! That's right.... I FINISHED MY FIRST PAIR OF SOCKS!!!!! I'm super happy about it. They fit nice, though a little loose for shoes. They'll be my house socks, due to the fact that I used size US 3 needles. They are crazy comfortable, and really don't want to take them off! I guess I will have to at some point to wash them. LOL The yarn is crazy soft and I have quite a bit of it left. I still have to weigh it, but I have no idea what to do with it. Any ideas?

Materials Used:

Knit Picks Harmony Needles (US 3) w/ 32" cable
Knitting Fever Indulgence with Aloe (colorway 114)
Tapestry needle
Pattern (I didn't really use a pattern, but just made it up as I went along, using online videos to learn how to knit each part)

I hope everyone has an amazing weekend! Share your FOs!

Work-in-Progress Wednesday 44

Welcome to Work in Progress Wednesday, the sock edition! I warned you. There will be a lot of socks in my (and your) future. This week's socks are a little different than previous, due to the fact that I'm actually making interesting ones, which brings me to my first WIP.




The first one is the Circle Socks, which I've dutifully titled Pucks and Canucks. You see, it's the Stanley Cup finals and seeing as my yarn is Vancouver Canucks colors (not on purpose) and they're playing for Lord Stanley (unfortunately...sorry Nikki!), I thought the title was appropriate. I started these on the 5th, but then RE-started them Tuesday (yesterday for those reading this) due to the fact that I screwed up. I was sitting on the beach in beautiful 75 degree weather (but with wind. Do you know how hard it is to knit fingering weight yarn in the wind?!?) when I started them, and despite looking at the pattern as I went, I didn't really LOOK at the pattern. Uhh..yeah. Let's just say the second time is going swimmingly. I hope to take a BITE (anyone watching the Stanely Cup Finals??!! If so, yes, that bite reference was on purpose) out of these, and move along quickly on them. I'm doing the Sock Knitters Anonymous June challenge, which these qualify for.




Because I'm insane, I decided to try another sock while working on the circle socks. To even further prove my insanity, not only am I doing another challenging (not really challenging but not a vanilla sock either) sock AND it's a test knit. I don't have a Ravelry link yet, but you'll be able to see these grow as I work on them. Because I'm also crazy AND insane, I decided to make them in BRIGHT ORANGE, using Candy Skein fingering in Orange Sherbet. Fun, right? I call these my Caution socks. Get it? They're as bright as a traffic cone? Okay, maybe not the most creative, but there you go. The reason I'm using orange? Another challenge! This one is for the SolidSocks group, and this month's color is...you guessed it, ORANGE!





And because I want to bore you some more, I'm not done with this sock (though I'm close and hope to have them done for FO Friday). You know all about these socks, so I won't keep rambling. Instead, check out everyone else's WIPs! Oh yes, and I'm very sorry to those links I didn't get to last Wednesday! I promise to hit all of them this week.

For those that are new to WIPW, to share your WIPW post with us, just fill out the Mr. Linky below. Despite it saying you must comment, don't feel as if you do. That is something Mr. Linky automatically adds. I just ask you to check out a few of the links posted to see what everyone else is working on and comment there if you can. Everyone loves feedback and a little encouragement on their projects! Also, please link back to this post in your post to get the word out! The more the merrier!

Please remember to use the new link to your post from this week, overriding the one that Mr. Linky saves from the previous. Thanks!

Candy Skein- New Fingering Weight Yarn in Stock!

Hi everyone! I've been crazy busy to bring you a huge group of fingering weight yarn today! I'm very excited about this batch of yarn, because I think it could be some of my best jobs. I always try and gauge how well the dyeing turned out by how many of the skeins I want to keep. Considering I want to keep most, if not all, I'd say they're a success! Since there are so many to share with you, I'm going to stop rambling and just share the pics!

These are all fingering weight and kettle dyed. Despite having two skeins of Party Punch, they are NOT the same dye lot. They are also all superwash and can be machine washed, but I recommend washing by hand. Also, remember to wash alone the first time through. Despite washing the yarn right after the dye process, there may be extra dye left in the skein.

Remember, I ship internationally and if there is a colorway you like and it's sold out or not in the weight you'd like, please let me know in the comments or at Candyskein.com! I do custom orders.

Colorway: Party Punch
Fiber content: 75% Merino Wool, 25% Nylon Superwash
Weight: Fingering Weight
Yardage: 462 yards
Unit Weight: 100 grams
Care: Machine wash/Tumble dry low

Price: $16
Quantity Available: 1
Available at Candy Skein








Colorway: Mint Chocolate Chip
Fiber content: 75% Merino Wool, 25% Nylon Superwash
Weight: Fingering Weight
Yardage: 462 yards
Unit Weight: 100 grams
Care: Machine wash/Tumble dry low

Price: $16
Quantity Available: 1
Available at Candy Skein







Colorway: Blueberry Cobbler
Fiber content: 75% Merino Wool, 25% Nylon Superwash
Weight: Fingering Weight
Yardage: 462 yards
Unit Weight: 100 grams
Care: Machine wash/Tumble dry low

SOLD- Custom Dyed

Colorway: Tequila Sunrise
Fiber content: 75% Merino Wool, 25% Nylon Superwash
Weight: Fingering Weight
Yardage: 462 yards
Unit Weight: 100 grams
Care: Machine wash/Tumble dry low

SOLD

Colorway: Blueberry Cheesecake
Fiber content: 75% Merino Wool, 25% Nylon Superwash
Weight: Fingering Weight
Yardage: 462 yards
Unit Weight: 100 grams
Care: Machine wash/Tumble dry low

Price: $16
Quantity Available: 1
Available at Candy Skein

Colorway: Gummy Shark
Fiber content: 75% Merino Wool, 25% Nylon Superwash
Weight: Fingering Weight
Yardage: 462 yards
Unit Weight: 100 grams
Care: Machine wash/Tumble dry low

Price: $16
Quantity Available: 1
Available at Candy Skein

FO Friday 37

Happy Friday everyone! This weekend is another relaxing one (hopefully) so next week I hope to actually have a PAIR of socks to show you, instead of these one offs. Not that I mind. At least I feel like I'm getting something accomplished even if I can't count them as true finished projects in my list of completed in 2011. I hope to at least have a pair finished by next Friday. I hope you don't get tired of looking at socks, because I have another pair I'm about to start for the June challenge on the Sock Knitters Anonymous group (Ravelry) . I've been really wanting to participate in one of their sockdowns, so YAY! I hope to cast on soon. I figured I should probably finish at least one of my pairs before doing so though. LOL

Now on to FO Friday!

YAY for another sock finished. I haven't started the second, but hope to soon. I totally made this vanilla sock up pattern wise, so no link to click. This one actually fits better than my first sock, because I waited a little longer to start decreasing the toe. The others fit, but these just are more comfortable. The first one I started the decrease at the base of my pinky toe, but I have crazy long toes, so this time I started the decrease at the tip of my pinky toe. I also decreased several rows more of the gusset right away. I have to admit, it started as a mistake as I was knitting it with one of my groups and wasn't paying attention. Then I liked the way it felt, so I kept going. Eventually, I did end up going to an every other row decrease. The next time I knit a sock (starting with the pair for the June sockdown), I'm going to knit the whole thing on a US size 2. I like the way these fit, but because I did the ribbing with the 2 and the rest with a 3, the foot area is a little dense, even with fingering weight. I think if I go down to a 2, that will help. That's the smallest needle I have right now, needing to order size 0 and 1 needles, but don't have the money right now.


Materials Used:

Knit Picks size US 2 (ribbing) and 3 (the rest) US needles
Candy Skein Fingering weight yarn (Blackberry)

Share your FOs!

Yarn Diet '11- The End is Finally Here!

Can you believe it's already June 1st!!?? That's right, the yarn diet is officially over, unless you purchased more than your 5 allowed shopping trips. I didn't want to WASTE any of my purchases, so I actually bought a few skeins of yarn in the last few weeks just to hit my final 5th purchase without going over. To be honest, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be and thought it would be great to do it every year from January 1-June 1! Who's with me!?

Even though we're finished, and can buy yarn whenever we please, I think it was a good test. From my numbers, as you will see, my stash didn't go down very much, and in fact grew. The crazy thing? I think the diet made it grow a lot less than it would have if I hadn't had it. It showed me that I didn't need to buy yarn every time I got the itch. I could work from my stash. Because of this, I will continue in a sense. I'm now not going to feel guilty each time I make a yarn purchase, but I think I'm going to keep track for the most part. I may forget a skein or two to add to the number, but, as long as I stay close to what's there. I also plan to keep track of how many skeins I've used in the year. I think this will be interesting, considering I'm also keeping track of how many FOs I've finished. This will be my first year doing so, and can't wait to see the results come December.

Here are my final stats:

Skeins used in the month of May: 3 (sad, right? I have an excuse. Not only did I open Candy Skein in the month of May, I also made two socks from two different yarns.)
Total skein count left: 275 (counting all yarn bought during yarn diet)
Total FOs completed in May: 1 (the hair kerchief, but I finished TWO SOCKS, just not a pair. Can I count those?)
Total yarn purchases in March and April: 1
Total purchase remaining: 0 (I have purchases to share with you, but that will be in a separate post as I haven't photographed them. I also need help picking the lovely pattern for one of them).



Speaking of December, can you believe that we have less than six months until the holidays?? Take a DEEP breath. If you want to plan several projects out for the holidays or otherwise, hop on over to the Blog-a-Long group on Ravelry. They will be knitting/crocheting through a year of patterns (either from your queue or even work your way through a whole book!) It's a great way to get a bunch of projects done and plan for the yarn purchases in the next few months to a year! I hope to join, but have yet to pick my plan of attack.

Also, check out the interview I did with Charlotte over at An Accidental Knitter this week! I had a great time doing the interview and the questions really made me think!

If you have a final Yarn Diet post, please post it below!