river

river
Originally uploaded by shaythelibrarian.

I decided to include a pic of the river rapids sock from last year to see where I started and where I am now. This is less intricate but more of a challenge for me. I am so excited to finish the second sock and be able to wear these, they will be very warm and it is getting cold out.

Happy Socktoberfest!

widd2
Originally uploaded by shaythelibrarian.

Widdershins sock from knitty.com
Brown Sheep Co. Wildfoote sock yarn in geranium colorway
Fiddlesticks bamboo needles size 1, bound off with crochet hook in size F

This is my second Soctoberfest and third pair of socks. Well not exactly, I only have one sock at the moment but I have a feeling that the second one will go very quickly. This is my first attempt at a toe-up sock. I really like this method, I was able to make the foot the perfect length! The leg was easy and I made it a nice length also. Then came the bind off. I think I tried 4 different ways of binding off before I found one that was loose enough to get over my heel. This was incredibly frustrating to figure out, but I ended up using a crochet bind-off with a chain stitch between each bound off stitch. It looks like a ruffle in the pics but that’s ok because I can get it on my foot.

I'm ba-ack!

I know I’ve been MIA for a while, and I don’t really have any excuse for it. So I will provide a short synopsis and move on. We went to NYC and saw grandma which was nice and Noel and Myrna which was not so nice. Paul decided that he needed a change of scenery and is now is his second week of training for his CDL, I hope that he is happy in his new career. Work has been crazy busy with two different accreditation reviews in as many weeks. We had our east coast reception this past Saturday and I was able to meet Paul’s family and friends. Julie and Andy flew down for the day and it was really nice to get to see them.

I have decided to try to be better to myself and am working on being healthier and trying to lose some weight. SparkPeople is a fantastic resource and there are some lovely people that I am getting to know.

Soctoberfest has begun and I’m really excited about this. Lolly is such a wonderful person and it’s so exciting to see someone who is able to do things that they love and include so many people who have the same passion.

Last year I made my first pair of socks, SockBug’s River Rapids in Lorna’s Laces shepherd sport, pond blue colorway. They had some problems, of course, but I love them and wear them frequently. I then made a nice pair of simple socks in Sockotta sock yarn, denim self stripping, they are nice and went much faster than the first pair. Since then life has become very full and I have a big project that I am focusing on trying to finish for Christmas. But I knew that I would make time for Socktoberfest.

This year I decided that I would like to try toe-up socks. I have long feet, size 11.5, so I never wanted to make the leg of the socks very long in fear of not having enough yarn to finish the toe. With toe-up I can make the foot as long as I need it and just knit the leg until I run out. I went to Cloverhill and picked up some Brown Sheep Co. Wildfoote sock yarn in the Geranium colorway. Then I started looking for a pattern. I know that’s not the best way to do things but things turned out well. I found, on knitty.com, the perfect pattern. Widdershins is a fairly simple toe-up sock pattern and it called for Brown Sheep Co. Wildfoote sock yarn in the Geranium colorway. How perfect was that? I used Judy’s magic cast on, as suggested. It was a little tricky and I did it a couple of times to get the feel of it. I started on Friday and in no time at all I had finished the toe increases and am racing my way down the foot. I love this yarn! I also got some size 1 Fiddlesticks off eBay and they are nice and light with a great point.

I promise there will be pictures in the near future, by Sunday at the latest, to document the socks and other items of interest, like the newest member of our family. Teller came to us from the Howard County Animal Rescue and already feels right at home. She is a 1 ½ year old tortoiseshell colored medium hair cat. She and Penn seem to get along quite well and she adores Paul.

Ok I must go to bed now as I’ve been sick for about a week and I need my sleep.