Dude! The Eight(ieth) Time's a Charm!

I lost my ability to read pattern instructions when it came to doing the yarn over heel on the Twinkleberry sock pattern, so I had to search the internet for help.

I sweated a couple of bullets looking at the instructions that popped up, but fortunately for me, I came across this link:

The easiest way to do a short row heel

This woman has saved me untold hours of sock heel making misery. I have recommended her two or three times already.

Thanks, Kaityvr!

It took me about 3 tries to learn the method, and a few more to make smaller holes and learn to recognize where I need to start knitting and purling the next slipped stitch.

If you try it, do your best to keep the yarn on the end loops close to your needle when turning and starting the next row. Also, keep count of where you are on each row. One easy way to figure out where you lost your place is to use a piece of yarn as a lifeline before you start the heel. Then you can count the number of rows you have worked to figure out how many slipped stitches are supposed to be on each side of the heel.

These double lines showed where I picked up the bar at the end of the row, which clued me in that I needed to knit that stitch, and pick up the bar for the next one.



I have had to frog back several times to make a decent heel with this sock, and having a lifeline saved me untold amounts of trouble.

My first yarnover heel

It looks like the pieces of this heel are not going to meet up, and I'm going to have big holes where the ankles should be. I'm going to ravelry for help. If I'm not back by Wednesday, please donate my pitiful stash to some worthy institution...

A closer up pic of the sock

Grits & Sticks picture

Knitting Group Meeting info:

For anyone interested, here is the schedule for the Crestview group for the next little bit:

April: 15th (this coming Tuesday), 29th
May: 6th, 20th
June: 3rd, 17th

We meet at 6:00 at Starbucks in Crestview every other Tuesday.

Think outside the sox contest

I'm going for it. I have no idea how I'm going to do it or what kind of yarn I'm going to use, but dudes, $6,000 is certainly worth an attempt.

If you want to design a pair of socks for the contest, or more than a pair (up to 5 pairs allowed), go to http://ThinkOutsidetheSocks.comfor the details and do your thing!

Sunset pic for Luna L.

Changing my layout

I don't like the way the pictures are being lined up with the text, so I'm going to rearrange them again.

I have had to frog the top of the second gimlet sock. I did something wrong somewhere, and I'm quite sure what it is, even after looking at it for two days. I don't mind redoing it...it's just making myself set aside the time that difficult.


Test of the new layout of pics: Speaking of Juliet though, I don't think I'll be making this anytime soon.

Knitpicks is my friend...

Pre-Knitpicks socks on 4 DPNs:













Post Knitpicks 40" cable needles...I am very happy with this set. I'm so happy with how well using 2 DPNs is working out. I love the flexible cables, and in an added bonus, they are actually my favorite color.
















The only way this could be better is if these socks knitted themselves. I love the Twinkleberry pattern, but I'm scared of the heel in the pattern.

I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and do it. I already emailed her about how many stitches I'm supposed to have at the end of the short row heels, but I'm not promising that I'm going to be able to do it her way.

I most likely will wind up using the method from my previously purchased sock book. I don't really want to wait another two weeks until Knit Night for some help.

Knit Nights are for knitting (bold, underline, all caps!)

Ok, here's the story. The Amethyst Cottage Knitting Group decided to start meeting twice a month, which is a fabulous idea. I love Knit Night; it's awesome!

There are two problems with having it at starbucks:

1) I am going to order something, even if I'm not hungry or thirsty. Even if I'm down to my last dime. Even if it kills me, because it would kill me even more not to order anything. lol

2) I always order something "mocha" flavored, and usually with some sort or cream or something in it...hello, mocha frappucino...stop calling my name. I am sure this cannot be physically good for me, but once the frosty frapuccino flavor hits my tongue, I could care less.

So this past Tuesday at Knit Night, I spent the first hour looking at everybody's stuff. Then I spent what felt like another hour picking out what I wanted to drink. The time was compounded by my inability to choose anything else on the menu, due to budgeting and craving constraints. (I finally settled on an iced mocha coffee. It was awesome. Could only be made awesomer by morphing into a frapuccino after the first 1/2 cup.)

Shortly before or after I placed my order, Melissa (Amethyst Cottage owner), looks at me and goes, "HEY! It's a knit night. Are you gonna knit or what? You're not even knitting anything." Ahhh, sarcasm and irony all in one statement. I love it.

"Yeah, I'm going to knit! It's just that I start listening and talking so much that I lose count, then I have to frog and reknit it all over again." It's true. Knit Night screws up my knitting, my crocheting, or anything I have to do a count for.

But the benefits are ginormous. They far outweigh the complications of chatting and knitting at the same time. I get excited seeing how much the group knitters have accomplished on their projects, and I admire their beautiful work. Colors, the evenness and nonwarping of their stitching, and the fact that they FINISH things! Finishing is great. Seeing them do it gets me excited about the projects I'm working on and the stuff I haven't got to that I want to finish. It's great. I hope it lasts a long time and even more people join.

Isobel (I have no idea how she spells her real name, and I won't embarrass her by attempting to spell it here) has done about 4 Calorimetry headbands, and she was wearing hers. Another woman she'd made one for was wearing hers too, and matched a T-shirt to it perfectly. Glynna finished the second 1/2 of her knitted roof for a teapot cozy, and was absolutely chuffed that she'd gotten it perfect after her final attempt. I would love to see it once she has done the embroidery. Melissa, proud sock first timer, was wearing her new pair of socks, and now has to fight to keep them to herself (her son was blown away that they weren't for him, so now she's making him a pair).

Two other ladies started learning to knit, and one of them seems very accomplished, even though she just started that night. She was doing it so evenly, you would think she used to knit before and was just picking it back up. It was heartwarming to see how well she did.

Afterwards, we spent another hour or so chatting outside on the way to our cars. Everybody's getting along really well. It's a beautiful thing.