Socktober socks!

Well...I finished another pair of socks. These are for a Christmas gift and also for SOCKTOBERFEST - which I joined last week. Since I am on a mad dash to finish the socks I need to knit for Christmas, I though the Socktoberfest celebrations were a perfect kick in the rear. 2 pairs down - at least another 2 pairs left to go. Wish me luck!

Here are the stats on these bad boys:
Pattern: Yankee Knitter "Classic Socks for the Family" designed by Melinda Goodfellow
Yarn: Sockotta self striping yarn
Weight: Fingering
Needles: wood, #2 Double Pointed
Comments: Love these. Great yarn, great pattern that I've used over and over and over. My aunt will love these!

On (and off) the bookshelf

I woke up this morning, and I found the second snow of the season on the ground here in Boulder. Greg and I went out for drinks and some dinner in Denver with some friends and just made it home before the storm began. The snow is always nicer when you don't have to drive in it!

Although the view off my back porch isn't spectacular, I thought the snow this morning was beautiful. The unusually wet snow (for this area) was weighing down all the tree limbs and sticking to everything. I couldn't help but take a picture.


As I took the Waves shawl off the loom this morning, I realized I hadn't shared my latest vintage knitting magazines with you all. This was a few weeks back now that I found them. Greg and I were rummaging around in our local thrift store and I found them hiding on an empty bookshelf in the corner. At only 10 cents a piece, I just couldn't leave them there. This Fisherman's sweaters from the 1960's is my favorite of the lot. It has great cabled sweater patterns AND the best hairstyles :)


The pattern I want to make out of it is a little cardigan. It's close fitting, 3/4 sleeved, and simple bobbles, and Aran work. Classic enough to still be in style and stay in style.This will be great for fall and spring weather - not too warm.

Really, though...the smirk on the model's face seals it! And the hair which wouldn't even fit in my photo is a nice touch.


The other two I got are good too. There is one from Reynolds that is all "Icelandic" patterns. This stuff I have never tried so it'll be in my more advanced "will try in the future" pile. I've done two color work but never anything so intricate. The other one is a later magazine from the 1970's. I usually don't like these, but this one had some nice ones in it. The cover is garish and the pictures are cheesier then most - but nice patterns inside.

I also just got a new Knit Simple magazine in the mail. As I looked through it this morning with my morning tea I found some great things to add to my "to knit" list.

Above: Simple scarf but I think it's beautiful. Looks warm, too!

Above: Nice close fitting pullover with bell sleeves and collar. Simple but beautiful!

Above: Again, simple but beautiful and comfy looking ribbed cardigan.

What I did over vacation

Along with visiting my parents and seeing Maine again for the first time in almost a year, I also did a whole lot of knitting while I was gone. As my boyfriend says "It was an awful long way to go to knit" - but really it doesn't matter where I go, knitting is never far from my finger tips!

So to update my knitting WIPS and FO's - I thought I should make one big post. Hopefully you'll enjoy :)

So, I left for Maine on the 7th of October. I had two flights and a longish layover in Newark. I had brought with me two balls of Moda Dea Sassy Stripes sock yarn in color "crush" for some sock knitting. Socks are a great way to pass the time on airplanes and they are very portable! Something I look for in a plane knitting companion...

The first sock I had 1/2 done by the end of the first flight (about 4 hours) and 3/4 done by the end of the second flight (1 hour) and by the time I went to bed that night that first sock was off the needles! The second sock I finished by Tuesday (3 days later). I think these are going into my Christmas knitting box that is still far too empty for this time of year. :( I gotta get my needles fired up a bit, I think!

Here's a little closeup of the stripey pattern of the yarn. When I first started knitting with it I didn't really like the color. But it started to grow on me the more I worked with it and now I really like them.

As you can see from the Joanne.com reviews in the link I posted above, the color of that yarn is a little deceiving. I had no idea it was so red when I bought it. I was expecting for pinks and purples. But I think they came out OK. Someone in my family will like them anyway. I even have enough left over to make myself a pair of footie socks!

I also visited a little yarn shop in Cornish Maine - Rosemary's Yarn Shop. It's a shop I go to every year while I'm home. She has the best prices I've seen so of course I purchased some more sock yarn for my flights home. I got another whole sock done and the beginning of the cuff of another. These are done in Sockotta self striping sock yarn. I've used this yarn before and I love it. Great quality and a nice feel to work with. This yarn is much thinner then the Moda Dea, so they take longer to knit up. But, I don't knit for speed :)

I also finished another Waves of Lace shawl for my boss at work. It's been in a holding pattern since I returned, though. She couldn't decide if she wanted me to fringe it or not. She made a decision yesterday, though, so I'll be blocking it and fringing it for it's final presentation to her. I love the color and it came out great. I hope she likes the final shawl as much as I like mine! Here's a pic of the finished shawl - pre blocking and finished. It's still on the loom right now, but soon the be bound off!


That's all my work since my last post. Man! When did I get anything else done...?

One final bit of news - I had a great class in Longmont last night. I had a whopping 7 students for my Beginning Knifty Knitter class! That's the most students I ever had in one class. It was a fast paced two hours and I think they learned a lot. I think they'll all be coming back for my Beyond the Basics classes next month. We'll have a new group of loomers soon!

Sorry this post is so long! I'll have time to post more regularly now.

Been a while...

Oye! Sorry, it's been a while since I've posted. Been busy with Michael's teaching and demoing and starting Christmas knitting. This time of year is when it starts to get busy, busy.

Anyway - I have been working on stuff. I'm working on another Waves of Lace shawl for someone. This one is out of 100% cotton Sonata from Elann.com. I love the color she picked out: Periwinkle (6319). It's a color I would wear myself, so it'll be fun to knit up. I'm going on vacation back to visit my family in Maine in a week and this will be the project I'm taking with me. Hopefully I wont have a problem taking the loom through security. I can't find anything that says I can't take it - so we'll see. Anyone have experience taking a loom onto an airplane?? I hate checking baggage, so I'd prefer to take it in a carry on...

I'm also looming a Zig Zag scarf for display in the Longmont Michael's store. I taught a Beyond the Basics Knifty Knitter class and the Zig Zag scarf was my pattern selection for the month. My students loved it. It was a great choice because it built on skills they have learned so far from me. It really drills in the garter stitch pattern (e-wrap and purl) - great for novice loomers!

This Zig Zag is done in Color Waves by Lion Brand in color 'Sunset Red'. The color is great for fall and I love the way it's coming out. The color waves moves into subtle stripes of bright colors and works well with the geometric zig zags. I got this yarn at Michael's.

In other news, I updated the design of loomknittingdesigns.com a bit. I added a header to the pages with links to contact me, a link to this blog, and a link to my Looming store at Amazon. Check it out if you get a chance. I think it brightens up the page a bit and helps with site usability as well.

Fun with mittens

So I've been knitting with needles for years now (seven, I think) and mittens were one of my first projects once I got past the usual scarves. I have in the past preferred to make socks or sweaters or wraps for the Xmas gifts every year. Last year I did make some stranded geometric design mittens from the Knitty.com site. These came out beautiful and my Dad and brother loved them!

Well... I wrote in my last post about my purchase of the new SWS yarn from Patons. I fell in love with the yarn in the store but had not a clue what I was going to do with it. I was thinking socks until I sat down to do a gauge swatch and discovered that the yarn was a tad bit too bulky for socks. *sigh*

So I started digging through some of the old knitting patterns I've collected. I found a whole pattern book that my Mom had given me that was full of mittens and gloves. All different ones - intarsia patterns, stranded designs, straight up mittens, and beautiful delicate gloves in fancy Angora yarns. All very nice! But the self striping SWS needed something simple to knit up. The pattern couldn't be too textured or the stripes would hide the design. And anything too plain would make my head spin from boredom!

So I finally found a pair of mittens that I'm referring to as "convertible mittens". I've seen this style of mitten before, but haven't given them a try. I love mittens - they keep my hands warm when gloves never come through for me. I hate taking them off whenever I have to do something with my hands - make change, get something out of my purse, even put a strand of hair back behind my ear! Anyway...

As you can see on the left, they look quite normal. The striped yarn looks nice on the hand and gives the seemingly boring mitten a little boost. But you turn it over to the palm side you spy something different.

There is a little flap across the palm. You can move the top of the mitten away and let your fingers come out! Yeah, perfect for the mitten lovers but glove-wearing-wanna-be's of the world. I don't know why I didn't make some of these sooner.


Sadly, these mittens are destined for an Xmas gift. I knew before I started them, so I'm sticking with it. They are for my brother's girlfriend. They both live in Philadelphia. It gets cold and wet there enough that I think these will be perfect.

I've already started the second mitten after finishing this one this morning. I'll share the final pic with you before they go into the Xmas knitting gift box. Since I'm getting a later start this year on all my hand made gifts, hopefully I can catch up.

PS: If you are interested in making a pair of these for your gift list, a quick search of Knitting Pattern Central (my fav!) produced the below links for your pleasure. Of course, I haven't made either of them, so I can't guarantee thier knitability.
Convertible Mittens (links to a PDF)
Magical Mittens

Nice find

After demoing the pumpkin patch pattern on the Knifty Knitters at Michael's yesterday, I went hunting through the yarn aisle. This is a dangerous adventure, since I already have yarn for projects I haven't started yet.

I know you knitters know what I'm talking about. But, I've tried really hard not to get too far ahead of myself. Right now I'm not too far ahead...I think...

Anyway, so while hunting through the yarn aisle I found several new beautiful wool and wool blend yarns by Patons. I only bought two skeins of one of the kinds that I wanted. See! - I had a little self restraint! The one I bought is called Patons SWS . It's a self striping yarn and made from 70% wool and 30% soy. The skeins I bought are the "Natural Navy" colors - stripes of navy and natural browns. Like all self striping yarns I buy, these skeins are destined for a pair of cozy wool striped socks. Maybe for a gift, maybe for myself.

Clog Style

Many a request I have gotten over the past year of pattern design for a clog style slipper. The Scuffie Slippers are low in the back, but aren't quite "clog style low". So yesterday I finally sat down and put yarn to loom and figured it out. I'll have to admit, this problem was in the back of my mind for a while. So I think it sorta finally just resolved itself yesterday.

The nice part is there is no heel turning needed with the Clog Style. Heels frighten a lot of people (including me, before I gave it a good try) - so eliminating the need to turn a heel is always a plus. More accessibility for the not so experienced loomer gets people to try things they wouldn't normally. Hopefully, this pattern seems more accessible to the newbie side of the intermediate loomer :)

Anyway, here's some more info about the clogs:

Pattern Name: Classic Clog Style Slipper
Loom used: Knifty Knitter Blue loom (or any slipper size loom)
Yarn: Lion Brand - Super Bulky Weight, Wool Ease Thick 'N Quick in Color 'Grass'
Yardage: About 150 yards (1 skein)
Skill Level: Intermediate
Techniques used: E-wrap, flat panel method, increasing, gathered bind off, I-cord, and whip stitch

-And here's some other pics-

Above is a closeup of the stitch pattern - super easy and looks great

and here's another picture of them on the foot. As you can see they just barely cup the back of the heel.