Monthly Archives: March 2007

Socks and Stash

This has been a fun and busy week as far as knitting goes.

I finished one more scarf from yarn in my stash. I used some worsted wt. in a shade of Aran and some dark green. It is a thick scarf that should be warm when worn.

Warm Scarf

A lot of work has been done on Sock # 1. There are about 2 1/2 inches to be done before starting the toe shaping. The toe needs to be completed except for a few rows before my next knitting lesson on my Tuesday. At that lesson the sock will be completed and Sock # 2 will be started. Yeah!!

Sock #1

Yesterday was fun. I had promised myself a trip to Hearthstone Knits. There was not time last week to look around very much because so much time was spent on my knitting lesson. Yesterday was the last day of the Spring Clearance Sale. I wanted to get some yarn from the Clearance bins and some sock yarn. Here is what I brought home:
new-yarn.jpg

This will be combined with other yarn in my stash to make scarves. All but the yellow came from the clearance bins and were inexpensive.

Sock Yarn

These will become socks. The one on the left and the one in center are for me. The one on the right will become a pair for my husband. It was originally to be for my son, but after I got home he put in a request for some plain white or blue socks. Hopefully there is such yarn. I have not looked for any yet.

At first I felt badly about buying the yarn, but after thinking about it and talking with my husband I no longer feel that way. One of my knitting goals for this year is to try other yarns, especially the fun fur type. It makes sense to do this with yarn bought for less than its original price. Sock yarn on the other hand is to be purchased when I choose to do so. The fact that it was on sale was a bonus. It is hard for me to find store bought socks that feel comfortable because I am sensitive to textures. From now on most of my socks, other than those worn for work, will be hand knit.

Have a great day!

Scarves

For quite a while I have also been considering the enormous size of my stash; the amount of storage space in my house and the relationship between the two. My stash is too large for this house. That is all there is to it.

I am also keenly aware of the needs of those less fortunate than my family and I. Even when life has been hardest we were blessed to have a roof on our head; a bit of food on the table and our other basic needs met. If we had needed more blankets, hats, scarves or other warm items my hands and stash could have provided them with a minimum of time and effort. Others are not so fortunate. I know. I was a home health nurse who went to some of the poorest sections of our metropolitan area and witnessed some of the needs. .

These two facts, combined with the inspiration from this post: 40 Days For Others: Scarves, have resulted in much of my knitting or crocheting time being devoted to knitting scarves to be given to at least one local charity.

StashScarfa

StashScarvesb

I cannot claim credit for the pattern since there could be one already written for it. What I did was use 4-6 strands of yarn, depending on the thickness of the strands and a pair of # 19 knitting needles. The yarns were not always the same texture or thickness. My goal is to have a thick warm item.

I cast on 14 stitches ( For those who understand the concept of multiples I used Multiples of 2 plus two. ) and worked a 2 x 2 ribbing of Knit 2, Purl 2 one row and Purl 2, Knit 2 on the next row. I did these two rows until the scarves measured about 60 inches or one of the strands of yarn ran out. For a couple of scarves there was more than one skein of the same color in my stash. If the scarf wasn’t quite long enough to suit me, I just attached the next skein and continued. The width is about 5 inches.

For the first couple of scarves, I knit the first row or 2 before starting the ribbing and knit the last row or two before binding off. I didn’t the way this looked and decided to just work the entire scarf in ribbing.

I must give credit to my resident Color Experts also know as Husband and Child #1. They very willingly gave their help with color and texture choices for these items.

It’s Saturday!

It is Saturday and the first of two days off in a row!! I am a tad excited to say the least. I enjoy my job a lot, but weekends off are a treasure.

About a year ago I took one knitting lesson with the idea of taking a series of them. My first goal was to learn to knit socks. I have wanted to learn to do this since I was a teenager. Life didn’t work out the way it was planned and the knitting lessons had to be put on hold.

The sock was put away until I was able to schedule another knitting lesson. The lesson was this past Wednesday. I learned to turn a heel, make the heel gusset and began shaping the gusset. It was enthralling to watch my tubular piece of knitting begin to look like a sock. The turning of the heel is an amazing process which I think will always fascinate me.

This is only my very first knitted sock. There are flaws in the stitching. Some of the stitches are not even. I have not dropped as many stitches on one project in a long time. That is all right because this is a learning experience.

There is a lot more to be done on this one. I will post more pictures in the days ahead. The mate to it will be made and they will be worn with pride and joy.

It is only one of many yet to be made. I am already addicted to sock knitting. There are so many styles to make and so many colorways and types of yarn waiting to be tried.