Flip Flop Socks, by popular demand!

Hi!

I posted some knitting projects on my facebook page and a friend emailed me and said "Please make me a pair of flip flop socks so I can give them to my friend for Christmas!" So I bought a big skein of Berroco Sox and pulled out the 56 stitch sock pattern (my favorite sock pattern!) and modified it a bit. I tried this once before by ribbing for an inch when you were supposed to do the toe decrease, and then sewing together the ribbing between the big toe and the next toe, but that stitch kept ripping out. So I decided to go the extra mile and actually make a separate ribbing for the toe. Here is the modification:

Knit 8 rows K2, P2 ribbing. Then start heel. Continue in pattern till you reach length of foot to the toes. Instead of toe decrease, put first 10 sts of instep on one needle, put next 36 sts on holder or scrap yarn, then put last 10 sts on another needle (add third needle and distribute sts evenly). Knit 20 sts, then pick up one st on instep and one st on back. K1, p1 around on 22 sts for 4 rows. Bind off. Then put 36 sts on 3 needles. Knit 36 sts, then pick up one st one st on back and one st on instep. K1 p1 around on 38 sts for 4 rows. Bind off.

YEAH, flip flock socks!! Have fun! Sue

More Pictures from the Craft Fair

Hi,

Here are some shots of our displays:

This is a display of my mom, Sheila's cross-stitch ornaments and bookmarks.
This is a display of my sister, Mary Beth's Daisy Heart Designs jewelry. She sold a lot of earrings. You can find her on Etsy.
And here is a shot of my table with my knitted items.

Sue

AAD Craft Fair

Hi,

I sold knitted items at my first craft fair today!! Some of the items are posted below. I sold the green victorian scarf for $20, the knitted slippers for $12 and I made a quick $5 on some earwarmers (I don't have a picture of this item yet). The earwarmers were just something fun I made up. I'll post a pattern for these soon. YEAH, $37 and my sister sold about $100 in earrings so we donated $25 to the local food pantry. I also got a commission for two pairs of Christmas stockings, a zip-back baby sweater and two more pairs of slippers.

Holiday Slippers from the Patons Next Steps: Socks and Slippers pattern book
Victorian Scarf by Knit Picks made in Crayon (100% cotton)
Whitney's hand warmers from the PurlBee blog.
Camoflauge helmet liner from the Patons Classic Wool free flyer
Three Tams from Knitty.com - Tam B in Patons Classic Wool Merino
Tam A

Lots of fun, Sue

Chenille Wrap

This is another stash buster. My sister loves buying stuff on ebay and she bought me a cone of recycled cotton chenille in a champagne color a number of years ago. It has a sport weight but feels a lot like Lion Suede or Berroco's Suede tape. She also bought me for my birthday 10 skeins of Bernat's Matrix, a ladder yarn which I had a hard time figuring out what to do with.

When I came upon Iris Shrierer's How to article in the Vogue Knitting Spring 2006, I found my pattern for these yarns. Her wrap suggested a thicker yarn but it's an adaptable pattern and I used a 7 needle alternating two rows of chenille and two rows of Matrix. I love the result!!

I finished this just in time for my trip to California!!

Take care, Sue

Holiday Slippers

Hi,

I just finished these fun Holiday Slippers for a charity craft fair I'm participating in. They are from the Patons Pattern Book Next Steps Four - Socks and Slippers. I used some bulky yarn from my sister-in-law Wendy's stash which she gave me this summer. I was amazed - she gave me so much beautiful wool! This is Katia Himalya, a bulky wool blend. I adjusted the pattern by adding a rolled hem rib at the top and the red pom-pom. The rib goes like this: picked up 36 stitches around edge and K1,P1 for 3 rows then K every st for 3 rows, bind off.

I knit these up quick in two days. Take care, Sue

Free Pattern: Crossed Dishcloth

I hate to be stuck anywhere without knitting. So I had some time to kill the other day before I met a friend for dinner and popped into Joann's fabrics to look at the yarn. I bought a crochet hook and a skein of Lily Sugar & Cream stripes in a pretty orange/brown/cream color. I played around with granny squares for a while then met my friend. I really liked the color though so when I got home, I pulled out my needles (I prefer knitting of course!) and conjured up this dishcloth. It's rough but pleasing! (joni quote)



Here is a free pattern:

Crossed Dish Cloth

Materials:
Yarn: 1 skein Lily Sugar and Cream Stripes, 100% Cotton. 96 yd./86 m. Color 21010 Natural Stripes.
Needles: #8 US (5mm)
Pattern: Double Seed Stitch
Row 1: K2, P2
Row 2: P2, K2
Row 3: P2, K2
Row 4: K2, P2

Cast on 43 sts. Start eyelet border:

Row 1: K2, K2tog, YO, K1, K2tog, YO till within 3 st, finish K3. You will now have 44 sts.
Row 2: K3, purl to within 3 st, K3.

Start Double Seed Stitch pattern:

Row 3: K2, K2tog, YO. Double Seed Stitch over 36 sts, end YO, K2tog, K2.
Row 4: K3, P1, Double Seed Stitch to within 4 sts, P1, K3.
Continue in this pattern till 16 rows are completed.

Start Cross pattern:

Row 19: K2, K2tog, YO Double Seed Stitch over 12 sts, K 12, Double Seed Stitch over 12 sts, YO, K2tog, K2.
Row 20: K3, P1, Double Seed Stitch over 12 sts, P12, Double Seed Stitch over 12 sts, P1, K3.
Continue in this pattern till 12 rows are completed
Row 33: K2, K2tog, YO, K12, Double Seed Stitch over 12 sts, K12, YO, K2tog, K2.
Continue in this pattern till 12 rows are completed
Row 45: Repeat Rows 19 and 20 till 12 more rows are completed.
Row 57: Repeat Rows 3 and 4 until 16 rows are completed.
Row 73: Repeat eyelet border Rows 1 and 2.

Bind off.

Continuous Stashbusting

Hey,

It's been a while but over the past month I've been switching between at least five projects. My ravelry page helps me to stay focused but sometimes when I'm being completely manic I have to go the way the needles are taking me. I bought a huge skein of bernat handicrafter cotton in a yellow/purple blend. Why, I have no idea, but I wanted to make some kind of tank top out of it. After trying the star tank in the new VK a couple of times, I gave up (it was complicated with 6 double pointed needles) I decided on the Roundabout Leaf Tank from Knitting Nature (Norah Gaughan).



It's fun to knit. It's almost like knitting a scarf and spiraling it in on itself until it becomes a tube. Then you make the straps. I hope I have enough yarn! (famous last words!)

I'm also working on Chic Knits Ariann, an Iris Schrier multidirectional wrap, and a Schaefer Heather basketweave scarf/shawl. Oh and don't forget Farrell's birthday elephant which is already almost a month late. Whatever. It's keeping me relatively sane!!

Loveyas, Sue

Currer

Hi,

I was hesitant to start this project after seeing the other ravelers who tried it … finishing seemed to be complicated, but I love the look, so as I continued to work through my stash, I decided to use my paprika Patons Classic Merino wool on this one. The wool seemed a little spring-ier and forgiving than the cotton. I like the way it looks and I've gotten a couple of compliments on it (Kate says "It's You"). The finishing isn’t perfect but I’m starting to really understand the techniques of picking up stitches and setting in sleeves. Gosh, only took 25 years! :-) I'm really hoping Norah and Cerilia do another How-To video about set in sleeves and picking up stitches around the neckline. Norah's video on sewing shoulder seams was awesome. Here's the link:

Norah Gaughan Teaches Shoulder Seaming

Here's a detail of the peplum:



Another stash busted!!! And oh yeah, my arm still hurts! :-)

Sue

Norah Raglan finished

Hi,

Finished my towel sweater! The neckline is too wide but I think it's comfy enough to wear. Now on to finishing the next sleepy sweater. I want to try and finish the Jo Sharp Silkroad cardigan that I started almost 3 years ago!! STASHBUSTERS!

STASHBUSTERS!!

Hey,

Although almost 40 people got laid off in my department this week, I made the cut and still have my job (deep sigh of relief!). It's tough out there ... I never really worried about losing my job, but I actually got the call from human resources and had to do the "dead man walking" trudge to her office. Thank goodness the first thing they said was I was NOT being laid off, but they needed to talk to everyone. It took about 15 minutes for my blood pressure to get back to normal!

Well with the economic realities in mind, I am in the process of STASHBUSTING! This will stop me from buying more yarn. (although I do have a birthday gift certificate to Knitting Etc. burning a hole in my pocket!)

I had this terry cloth acrylic hanging around and I just decided to make a hangaround sweater with it. I was browsing my old VKs and found this sweater by Norah Gaughan which looked perfect. Raglan sleeves, my favorite!! this will probably become my weekend yard work sweater!!

The yarn is Red Heart Baby Teri in a white/green. It looks just like a towel. I've finished front back and one sleeve so I hope to finish it this weekend.

All is progressing with my tendenitis. I go to physical therapy once a week and my yoga instructor is giving me good tips on how to exercise the arm so I don't get "frozen shoulder" which sounds horrible!!

Hope to have more pictures of this STASHBUSTER!! on Monday.

Enjoy, Sue

Simple Pleasures Hat finished!

Hey,

Although my arm injury is still not getting better, I finished my Simple Pleasures Hat using continental knitting. All I can say is switching to continental knitting really didn't change the pain in my arm, plus all I can do is knit and purl, I had a lot of trouble knitting 2 together or anything else. So I think the main issue is knitting less (boo hoo!) I started physical therapy and I'm back to yoga, so we'll see how that regimen works.

The hat is adorable. I mentioned on my ravelry page that my adjustments to the pattern to fit gauge backfired on me and made the hat HUGE! I did wear it once but I looked like that guy from the Fat Albert cartoons who had a hat for a head! So I frogged and went back to the original instructions and it came out very nice.

Hope you are having a great day! Sue

Great RSI article in Vogue Knitting Winter 03/04

I'm continuing with my continental knitting experiment to relieve pressure on my left arm. One hour of continental knitting in the morning and two hours of knitting at night maybe once or twice a week while watching TV. Thank goodness I have other activities at night to keep me away from knitting (band practice and my "spiritual" meetings!) Also going out to dinner with Steve (I'll always pass up knitting for that!)

I continued my reading of old VKs and found a great (and long!) article on Repetitive Syndrome injuries in the Winter 2003/2004. It goes into great detail about many remedies (including switching to continental knitting or vice versa), physical therapy, yoga and abstinence. The big message of this article is that if you don't do something about your injury and continue the repetitive motion, you can permanently damage your arm/wrist. That's a sobering thought. I'll try to include some more tidbits from the article as I don't have it with me right now.

I can feel my arm getting better because I'm sleeping better. My elbow was hurting a lot earlier in the week but today I'm feeling ok.

Current Remedy for Insanity: Continental Knitting!

Ok, so I resigned myself to finding other activities besides knitting and decided to look through my old Vogue Knittings (starting with 1983!). While I was perusing a late 80's version, I came across an Elizabeth Zimmerman article on the difference between continental and american knitting. The most I could get out of the article (she was being her usual obtuse self) was that american was throwing and continental had more two handed action. When I got back to my computer I did a google search for "continental knitting" and found this tutorial on youtube:

Continental Knitting Demo

I watched the whole thing carefully and then when I got home from work, I tried it. It was slow going at first but I worked a couple of rows in the round on the Simple Pleasures Hat from purlbee that I started about two weeks ago. Nothing horrible happened and my arm seems to be getting slightly better. I guess the bottom line is I still need to learn a little moderation (and go to physical therapy) but I'm going to see if I can finish the hat just doing continental: Thankfully the hat is mostly k2, p2 rib and stockinette. I'm hoping I can relieve a little pressure on my arm and also learn something new! Another VK article I read was an early interview with Norah Gaughan and she said she knits continental, too. Cool.

PS, I'll post this to my ravelry site, but I substituted Misti Alpaca Lace 2-ply for the cashmere in the SP hat. I had to use three strands to get the right gauge for the ribbing.

Take care, Sue

The Sorrow of a Knitting Injury

Boo HOO!! I have finally succumbed to the reality that my knitting injury is so bad that I can't even knit for a little while, knit with bigger needles, crochet instead of knit, knit in the round, nothing, nada, stop, really stop ... I can't knit, my arm hurts so bad just sitting still. So the reality also hits me how much I think about knitting. I was just in the post office and a lady in front of me was wearing a lovely handknit vest in my favorite color (camel) garter stitch edgings with a flattering rounded cabled front with a wood toggle at the breast. AGH! I didn't even care that it looked like she used a cheap acrylic bulky, I was insanely jealous. Boo hoo!! (see my own recent camel cabled version of cheap acrylic bulky!)

So what now? Do I plan future knitting projects for when my arm recovers? Do I read back issues of Vogue Knitting? I feel like this is comparable to sitting outside a bar after rehab. Do I search for a new obsession?

Well before I start anything I need to get an assessment of how bad my injury is. I've signed up for physical therapy. Until I get my prognosis I won't start giving away my stash.

BOO HOOOOOO!!!!!

Post-Christmas Mortem and My Knitting Injury

Hi,

I have finally emerged from my post-Christmas funk to recap my knitting mania of trying to finish gifts by Mom's Christmas Eve dinner. I actually did pretty good this year all considered. Here are the finished products:

Miriam's Ice Queen (from Knitty Winter 2007)
















Piper's Ganomy Hat with Bows (from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac) with bows designed by me.


Nana Sheila's Cabled Pocket Shawl (from Knit Picks) It looks like this pattern is no longer available at the Knit Picks site, but you can get it on ravelry as a free download.


MB's Tudora (from Knitty Winter 2007)




















At the same time I was still taking classes to finish my Saddle Shoulder Aran Sweater, which is still in progress although the class is over.

The result: KNITTING INJURY!!!!!

My left arm from my wrist to my shoulder hurt so bad I couldn't sleep. I went to the doctor and he said I have tendenitis in my rotator cuff and I have to stop knitting for at least two weeks. If it's not better by then I will need to go to physical therapy.

CAN ANYONE SAY 12-STEP PROGRAM!!!! Sheesh.

More soon, Sue