Sole Food Swap Q&A

What weight of sock yarn do you generally prefer (fingering, sport, or DK?) Fingering

What is your favorite type of yarn to knit with? For socks, superwash (or not) merino mostly. Most animal fibers.

Are there any brands of sock yarn that you have wanted to work with but have not had the chance? Sure! I want to knit all the sockyarns!!! LOL

What colors do you like? Bright and bold and dark colors, of all sorts. Current favorites are charcoal grey, turquoise, kelly green, and wine colored red/purples

What colors do you not like? any of the muted or "fall" colors like olive green or mustard. I also don't like pastels

What type of recipes do you usually cook with? Mexican food, Quick recipes, Recipes with Potatoes ... I like things that are easier and make good leftovers

What type of recipes do you usually bake with? I'm not actually a big baker... My boyfriend will bake though.. LOL I do meals, he handles dessert

What is your favorite food? Chicken Enchiladas, Papa Rellena, Tortilla Soup, Guacamole

Are you a tea or coffee drinker? Yes to both! Coffees I like are the stronger, bolder, latin american ones and teas I usually drink at night so the more soothing ones.

What type of sweets do you like? Chocolates, Salt water taffy

Does your kitchen have a theme? No, not really. It's mostly all stainless steel and blues/greens/tans. Although I keep all of the large cooking spoons and other utensils in a Spiderman bucket, so I'm open to a lot of things.

Do you have any allergies (to food, fibers, pets, etc) or diet restrictions? Foods: melons make my throat swell up, and I loathe bananas & coconut so I'll claim allergy to avoid having them appear on something to eat. All other allergies I have are to pollens and grasses so don't send those. ;)

Is there anything else you would like your pal to know? Umm... not that I can thing of.... I don't eat pork. Or cook with pork, or any of that. That's the only thing I didn't have before.

Thankful

I have been buried at work. Literally buried. I come home after, knit for a bit and tend to fall asleep on the couch until Mauricio comes home. Then I'll wake up and go to bed. LOL Hopefully it will start slowing down now. =D The good news is that hard work pays off. I was granted a raise of $2 more and hour before the holiday. w00t! Celebrating was done.

During this time of working too much I didn't do any posting. I was too tired to form words. :( But I can manage to do some word forming now, thanks to a 4 day weekend. YAY!

In my knitting newsI have finished my black heart socks. II've had to fix a few snags already, but I love those socks more than anything. I wore them for Thanksgiving. =D They're really very perfect. Veronica and I have a list of Venture Brother themed sock ideas that we'll be using now.

Black Hearts Socks

Pattern: True Love Socks by Thayer Preece

Yarn: Sundara Sock - Black over Violet (Limited Edition color)

Needles: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm

I am a true toe-up convert now. I don't even want to look at top down socks. These ones took me 18 days to finish! =D I was really excited to discover how much faster I can finish a pair toe-up vs. top down.

I've picked my Percy Shawl back up and gotten it through the first repeat of the B chart. I don't know if I'll get it done anytime soon, but it's nice to have reached a certain point. I have the second round of chart B, then chart C and then bind off. Listing it out makes it seem so much easier than the actual knitting of those charts. LOL I have this nightmare where I'll finish it block it, and either it's going to unravel or completely just look WRONG. (PLEASE PLEASE DON'T HAPPEN.)

I have finally started on Mauricio's socks. My goal is to finish by Christmas Eve. He won't be her for Christmas so if they're done by Christmas Eve he can wear them while visiting his

parents on Christmas. =D Well, that's sort of the plan. It also give me a deadline so that I don't pick up a different yarn and start myself a new pair of socks. ;D

The Empire Strikes First

Pattern: Boyfriend Socks by Alice Bell

Yarn: Cosmic Fibers Andromeda - Darth Vader (nefarious club)

Needles: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm

I'm doing the size medium from the pattern. I've tried it on his foot and it fits perfectly. (HOORAY, no frogging and restarting!)

And yes, we do have an entire bookshelf dedicated to graphic novels. We also think it's worth it to spend the big bucks on the special edition fancy graphic novels. ;) Although we also have an entire shelf of Harry Potter books with some fancy special edition books too. =D

A knit update :D

It seems I haven't had one in a while... Or I have, but I was SUPER successful with knitting time this weekend since I'm now on crutches and sick of limping around with them, so I stayed home all weekend. I have Veteran's Day on Wednesday to do the same thing. Work has thrown a monkey wrench in my weekend knitting though by deciding to have stupid company cocktail party. :P

I've finished Elanor's knitted items. FINISHED... Knit, Wove in ends, Blocked ... DONE! I really like them too. As does everyone who has seen them either finished or in progress. :D Hopefully Elanor will too! Now, I just need to assemble the rest of the kit and get the EXTRAS all in order. :D

I've picked Percy back up. I managed to get 5 rows done yesterday night before I got too tired. LOL If I stick to my planned "schedule" I should be able to get the majority of my Christmas gifts and Percy, and my new socks done by December. YAY!

Pictures of my newest socks, the Black Hearts. Perfect for any member of the Molotov's murderous girl group. :D I maybe watch this cartoon WAY too much, but I do love Molotov. And the Black Hearts. So what better way to use my new almost black Sundara. :D

Look What I can Do!

TOE UP SOCKS!!!!

My Lucy socks are done... Lucy yarn, Lucy pattern... for me!

These are the quickest socks that I have ever knit! I did the second sock in a total of 2 days and a few hours for the cuff and bind off! Really I am so excited by these. I wore them to work today... No one coud see them b/c they were in my shoes but it made me damn giddy all day knowing they were on my feet. :D I think I'm a toe-up convert now.. I don't even want to lookat a top-down sock pattern anymore.

My Toe Up Adventure

I have started on my second shawl, "Percy." It was part of a KAL with some fellow HSKSers. I'm using my Sweeney Todd yarn from the Nefarious club. The project got named "Ozymandias, King of Kings" from Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ozymandias. It's really VERY VERY pretty so far. The charts are in tiny print and one is patterned on both the RS and the WS so I'm moving a lot slower through that chart than I normally would, but I have really flew through most of it and, I think, that it's looking beautiful. In addition to starting another shawl, (I am now a lace and shawl addict!) I decided to attempt my first pair of toe up socks, encouraged by Ronni. This is my progress since Monday night. I am pretty thrilled with the socks. And I was surprisingly shocked at how amazingly easy toe-up is! WOW! Thankfully Ronni was able to give me some tips and links to help me get started. Where would I be with out my best friend? (((Awwwwww....)))

Yarn balled, Pattern Printed

Cast-on and the first few rows

Progressing up the foot

Pattern: Sprucey Lucy by Wendy Johnson
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts STR
Colorway: Lucy
I named them "Pork and Beans" after one of my favorite Weezer songs... I promise if you read or just know the lyrics you'll see why. Also the song has been stuck in my head ALL WEEK. ;)

Dry Ishbel Pictures, Titania Progress, and What's Next

Here is my finished, dry and blocked Ishbel... It's beautiful and I LOVE it!!! :D I am still not over the EVIL EVIL pins but I like my finished result. And I have ordered wires and better pins for my blocking future.

Here are the pictures of my Titania's Revenge progress. In the pictures they are about 3 1/2 repeats of the leg pattern done. I've now finished 4. The flash on the camera really caught all of the colors really well. When there isn't direct light the yarn looks like a tonal dark maroon/purple. The colors are really beautiful though. :)

Up next (now that I'm lace and shawl obsessed) is Percy. I'm going to use some Malabrigo lace in indigo that I just ordered from the Loopy Ewe this weekend. It'll be a KAL with Ronni and Sarah. :) I'm excited to get started. That'll be my first lace project with lace weight yarn. My first lace weight yarn at all!

Finished Ishbel!!!

Right now it's blocking... And I'm buying wires on payday. Because pins are evil... They are evil time consuming tedious evil little bastards. I'm happy for my shawl though!!! :)

BTW: This was a 16 day project from start to finish, I amaze myself sometimes. I've never knit so fast ever.

Ishbel progress Day 1

I've got 123 stitches on the needle and no mistakes. :) I SHOULD finish the stockinette portion this week. It's very pretty so far. Plus this yarn is so soft and so pretty. I need my new addi turbos to get here soon though because I'm pretty much at the end of space on my 16" circular... They should be here tuesday. If not I've got some scarves (actually 1 scarf, and my own starter that I'm re-starting) from scarf travels to work on.

It's a Miracle!!!!

I finished a scarf in less than 2 months! That's a record for me. Usually I get bored and the project gets too redundant and I quit. I actually probably knit most of this in about a months time, but there were about 3 weeks after I came back from vacation that I never touched it because I was either tired or busy or sick or wallowing in my own misery because I hated my job so much. (Have I mentioned that I quit, and got a new job and I'm THRILLED!) .... Moving On ... Rosalie Bay is completed! I LOVE this scarf! It's so soft and so pretty and really very beautiful in person. I love the colors. I love the yarn. It's just beautiful.

The next project that I'm going to attempt is my very own Ishbel. I'm going to cast-on tomorrow because this is my first time doing a shawl and I'm too tired to attemt it at the moment. Plus, all of my late night cast ons are generally disasters. So I'll wait until I'm refreshed tomorrow. LOL I'm using my Cosmic Fiber Aquila in Other Mother from the nefarious club. The plan is to do the stockinette portion for the small shawl and the lace portion for the large shawl and get sort of a medium size. Ronni is going to KAL with me. She'll probably kick my @$ at it, but it's not a contest. I'm hoping to be able to use her to help me. ;) I've ordered some new Addi Lace needles that shoud be here soon, but I'm impatient so I'm starting on a 16" circular. I already added all the details to ravelry because I'm THAT excited and ready to go. (This also motivated me to finish the scarf much quicker.)

Crazy Times

Due to unforeseen circumstances involving work, family, Mauricio, Rocky and internet usage I've not been able to blog much.

In the area concerning my knitting, I've not got much to show, or talk about for that matter. The only thing I've really worked on is my Rosalie Bay. It's coming along rather well. I'm in love with it. :) It's pretty mindless so I can work on it while I watch tv or am talking to someone or am so tired I can't really concentrate much.

I had to re-cast-on Titania. She was going to end up much much too small if I kept on the way that I was. I've not gotten past the ribbing yet on the new sock, but hopefully this on will fit.

For scarf travels (which is what I've been spending most of what free time I've had for knitting to work on) I've done 3 sections for each group, since I've last updated with any photos. I've also completed the entire round of sending and receiving for group 5. YAY!

Here are pictures of my newest knitted sections:

(Ones for group 3 are in the top row, ones for group 5 are in the bottom row0

For more information on whose is whose or patterns see: Group 3 Spoiler Photos and Group 5 Spoiler Photos

This is a mosaic of my scarf that has come back to me and all of the individual sections of it:

(For more see Scarf Travels - Group 5)

Here is a mosaic of all (minus on I didn't snap a picture of) the sections of scarves that I knit for group 5. (For more information see Group 5 Spoiler Photos)

I've also gotten some (more) new sock yarns. Claudine (black/teal/green/purple) and Pam (pinks) came for the August shipment of the VSC. I also bought some new handdyed yarn at Knit Las Vegas when I went there with Aynsley. I love how bright that one is! :) I need to get to the sock knitting!

In HSKS8 news:
Last week I received an awesome WWW! It really made me laugh, which was greatly appreciated in a stressful time. :) Thanks! Cassie C. :)
(See below, you can click on it to get a better look)
The day that it arrived in the mail Luke happened to be over. Mauricio came home and brought the mail with him and said, "Who's Fluer Sweeting?" And when I answered, "Me. That's my Harry Potter name." Both he and my brother cracked up. Apparently it's that funny. :) LOL I put on my new curse free ring on a certain finger and showed it to them both. ;)

(I almost think I'd rather have the diamond and 100 years of sleep, especially if I don't have to age in that sleep... and Maybe I'll just make Rocky sleep too, that way when i wake up I won't be lonely. LOL)

That's it for now. I should be blogging more regularly with any luck.

5 skeins of yarn in my mail today! 5!!!!

Seriously! I ad 5 skeins of sock yarn in my teeny tiny mailbox... I've been skipping around ever since. :)

First we have my cosmic fibers shipment. (They came together.) I had received roving for my nefarious shipment and decided I wanted the yarn too. :) So I now have the beautiful Alpaca/Silk other mother sock yarn. The other 3 were my "BuffyVerse" yarns. Buffy was my FAVORITE tv show when I was younger. And Angel was my first love... (not really, maybe) So I ordered Buffy on cashmere sock, Angel on silver silk sock and Fred on merino/tencel.

The 5th skein of yarn was the 2nd half of my birthday gift from Ronni. It's Woolen Mill St yarn by Christina Marie Potter in the Zoe colorway. Another yarn based on a Whedon fandom. LOL It's so so soft and so pretty. My other present was the super cute turtle sock blockers in the picture. ;) I have the best best friend in the whole world.

While I was in my giddy sock yarn picture taking bliss, I also snapped a couple of photos of my 2 most recent WIPs. My Montego Bay in my Rosalie yarn from the VSC... I've called it Rosalie Bay on Ravelry. Coincidently enough, there is an actual Rosalie Bay in the Carribean. The other is my titania socks, which I've named "She's a Knockout" after a Social D song. (For those who didn't know or notice, I name all my socks after songs.)

I finished my Monkeys... (and finally uploaded other photos)

I finished my Monkeys!I love them. They aren't perfect, but they are mine and I love them. :)

Feed the Monkey, Drown the Worm
PATTERN: Monkey
NEEDLES: US 2 / 2.75 mm
YARN: Yarn Pirate Merino/Tencel Sock (Jungle)

And for some old-ish scarf travels updates: These are my most recent finished sections. :)

GROUP 5
For ladydinc’s scarf
PATTERN: Scrunchable Scarf
NEEDLES: US 9/5.5 mm
YARN: Malabrigo Merino - emerald blue

GROUP 3
For knitwitty26’s scarf
PATTERN: Feather and Fan scarf (with mods)
YARN: Cascade 220 - 9476 (butter)
NEEDLES: Size US 8 / 5.0 mm

Project Updates and New Yarns (with Pictures!)

First of all we'll start with my projects and the very little progress that I have made on them... ;) Moving takes a lot of time so... yea, not much knitting has gotten done.

SCARF TRAVELS!

Here is a picture of my latest knitted section on the latest scarf that I had for group 5. I should say here's a a small picture of the section that I have knitted. Twin256 has a vertically knit scarf. it's turning out to be very beautiful.

For twin256’s scarf
PATTERN: lace pattern of my own,
only added 4 rows since the scarf is knit the long way.
NEEDLES: whatever was provided
YARN: Lion Brand Wool Ease - Peacock

Right now I am working on knitwitty26's yellow scarf. Since yellow doesn't rank in my top 10 favorite colors, I'm really happy that I had some buttery yellow Cascade 220 to use for this scarf. I will have that section in the mail on Friday so I'll get a picture up sometime near the end of this week. :)

I have finished my first Monkey!

I am so excited for these socks to be finished. I took pictures this morning and have done 2+ repeats since. I also frequently walk around with only one sock on just because it's so so so pretty. Even my mom said it was pretty, and she rarely compliments my knitting. She would rather I cross stitch or make hook rugs so that she could use them to decorate. Mostly she gives me a hard time, but she really liked my sock(s). :)

Feed the Monkey, Drown the Worm

RIP glynis
She's gone to the frog pond. :(

They weren't done for the KAL. That is actually as far as I ever got... Between Mom's birthday and moving and officiating and work and the millions of other things going on I never got very far. I am a little glad that I didn't though because they were too tight and too small for even my tiny feet... *SIGH*


The next sock project that I'm casting on for June is going to be Titania's Revenge with my diva yarn. I am insanely excited about this. I've been wanting to do these socks with this yarn for forever. I'll be casting on by tomorrow, and have more progress pictures at the end of the week. :) I should hopefully get these done this month. I signed up with them as a June project for the BSG group that I joined, I'm also doing the "June Jumble" with the cookie-a-long group, and kind of KAL-ing with Ronni... So those are a TON of motivational factors.

Also for the previoulsy mentioned BSG group I'd like to submit a lacy stole/scarf project for the Raider training (I signed up as a cylon, naturally). I'm torn between two of these at the moment and I really need to make up my damn mind. Which, is practically impossible on a good day, but there you go....

I either want to do the Three Sisters Scarves # Two with my seasilk that Ronni gave me or the Red Skies at Night scarf with my newly obtained volturi yarn. (I made screen shots for pictures for the visual aids.)

I really REALLY REALLY like both projects. The biggest pros for the seasilk scarf are that it's a pattern designed for 1 skein of EXACT yarn that I want to use. So I wouldn't have to worry about yardage or trouble in that area. Plus, I'd get to use my super super pretty soft seasilk... The pros for red skies are that I'd get to use some of my VSC yarn. I REALLY like this patteren, and I think that it would be beautiful with the volturi colorway. The problem with it is I will need to swatch and adjust the pattern to use all the yarn. The pattern as is only uses 200 yards of sock weight yarn, and I really have no use to have 240 yards left over. Plus I want the measurement to be both wider and longer. Either way it'll be a big undertaking and I'll have to make myself knit a certain amout every week so that I actually finish. I will probably ponder and mull this over for a couple more days and then make my decision. If anyone else wants to weigh in, I'd be more than happy for the opinions.

AND HERE ARE THE LATEST SHIPMENTS FOR MY YARN CLUBS!
(Which is my personal favorite part of the post.)

For this month's (May) nefarious:

Xenia Onatopp
on the Lyra (100% superwash merino) base
SWAG: wooden knitting needles from Russia, and a mini yarn skein (Also a piece of chocolate, but that was a melty gross mess that never got opened. What can I say it's 100 degrees outside here...)

The June VSC shipment...
Shipped out early because Jen is so awesome.
(Though this most likely means I have to wait over a month for my next shipment.)
I apologize for the ack of natural light in these pictures, the photos do the colors no justice at all. But the sun is down and I didn't want to wait until tomorrow.


This month I have Volturi and Jasper Hale on Silk Sock base.
(Listed as pictured from Left to Right.)
The pattern this time was "Volturi Sock" pattern, I've not gotten a good look at it yet. The shipment went to my mom's house and I barely got home from there. I also got swag this month, a little stitch marker from "bananamigraine," a horror movie soap with Bella and Edward from the twilight movie poster (I just wonder what Mauricio will say if I leave that in the shower. hahaha), and a pen that says "I <3>