As The Yarn Turns

The Fair and a FO

I have an actual FO to report. I finally finished the Claudia Hand Painted socks. The yarn is very soft and squishy and the socks are comfortable on my feet.

The colorway is Freesia and the pattern is a slip stitch rib pattern that I picked up from Chris. They'll be good in the middle of winter when it's dark and dreary.

Last week we went to the Middle Tennessee District Fair in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. I had always heard it was larger than our local fair, but it seemed to be about the same size. My favorite part of the fair is the exhibits. They had more knitted and crocheted items than our local fair usually has. My favorite was this hand knit dress from the 1930s.

Of course, no fair is complete without the giant vegetable category.

The large pumpkin in the back weighed over 700 pounds.

"I don't care if you did go to fair. I have a new toy." - Clyde

Clyde has been busy playing with his new 20 foot dryer hose. This one is transparent and flexible so he can rearrange when he gets tired of the current configuration. Every now and then Clyde will let Zoe play in the tube, but most of the time he feels it only belongs to him.

I'll leave you will a couple of knitting related links. The first one is Bugknits. The next time you get frustrated with tiny yarn and tiny needles, take a look at Althea Merback's teeny tiny sweaters and socks on this site. She also has patterns if you're inspired.

For more traditionally sized garments, try the Knitting Fiend. Lucia has pattern generators for almost anything you might want to knit. You select a pattern and enter some measurements and your gauge and generate your pattern. She also includes knitting machine patterns. Check out the sites if you haven't seen them yet.

by Sydney  |

Sock History

Jane at Quiddity is having her Third Annual Show Me Your Socks Contest. This year she wants to see our first and our last socks. You have until midnight October 1 to enter so go take your photos if you haven't already. I was going to try and be creative but by the time I got around to taking the photos, I had forgotten all about the creative part. What can I say? It's been hectic around here. Here's my very first socks, fuzz balls and all.

I decided to try something easy and cheap for my first socks. I got some Wool-Ease Chunky, I think, and made the Cottage Socks on the ball band. At least I think that's what they are called. It was a good way to get used to sock knitting. They were a very quick knit. I finished them in a couple of days. I still wear them now and then when my feet get icy cold in the winter.

My next, real pair of socks was either the pair of socks below or a pair of plain stockinette socks for Rick. I can't remember which came next. Since Rick's socks are in the wash, you get to see the first pair I made for myself.

These were made with a feather and fan sock pattern I found on the internet. The yarn is some Fortissima wool and cotton yarn I bought from Elann. I've worn these socks a lot and the yarn wears very well. They are my favorite socks for those times between cold weather and warm weather.

Fast forward to today, and here are the Claudia Hand Painted socks in a slip stitch rib pattern. They just have a few more rows to go. These are going to be very comfortable to wear.

I haven't been very adventurous with my socks. Every now and then I'll make socks in a lace pattern or a rib pattern. Most of my socks are plain stockinette though.

The baby birds are starting to look like small doves now.

They are going in and out of the nest and I swear you can almost see them grow. They are two weeks old and the parents will still feed them for a few more weeks. We've been taking them out of the cage for a few minutes every day to get them used to being handled. One of the babies is definitely more adventurous than the other. They are both very good about being handled and the parents have been okay with it as long as we don't keep them too long.

by Sydney  |