Playing with finger paint, almost.







I feel like the proverbial 4 year old who has been given finger paints and a sheet of paper.  Except, I am not using finger paints, but left over sock yarn to knit socks and I hope there is a kid out there that likes wild and woolly socks as much as my daughter and I do.

 

 

Of course, there are the inevitable ends to sew in.  I've tried the knit in the ends as you go method, but don't like the look of it.  So I've gone back to my old method.

This is the second pair in the series. I got wise with this pair and changed the yarn every row and, thus, didn't have that many ends to sew in since I could carry the yarn along. 

 

More to come.  I'm on a roll.

 

Knit on, merrily.







No more odds and ends sock yarn afghans

I finished the afghan made with left-over sock yarn.  It only took from September 2009 to May 2013. Never again.  Way too much work to sow together.  I kept procrastinating and then the dreaded moth invasion happened and thus the afghan was smaller than anticipated.  It still ended up a good size.  In order to stabilize the edges of the afghan, I single crocheted one row and then did the crab stitch.  It'll keep my son-in-law warm when he takes his naps.  The photo is without the edging.  I was so glad to be done with it that I forgot to take a picture. 

 

I still have odds and ends of sock yarn.  They will be made into much needed socks for the Kazakhstan kids.

 

Knit on Merrily!



Witches Garden

Another pair of socks for the orphanages in Kazakhstan via the Motherless Child Foundation.  These were knit with an ancient ball of Opal sock yarn which I picked up on the cheap some years ago at www.littleknits.com . The pattern is by Sonja Koehler and the link to the pattern is on Ravelry.  It is available in both German and English.  The pattern is easy to knit, but slightly boring due to the moss stitch.  I saw one photo where the knitter knit the back of the sock in stockinette. 

Knit on, merrily!

It's been a while...

...exactly a month less one day since I've posted last.  I have been busy, however with knitting, ripping out, knitting, ripping out, and knitting.  Somewhere in the vastness of the Internet, I found instructions for these:  Dryer balls.  Yep, you read correctly.  And here is a photo of said dryer balls:

If you click on the link above, instructions will appear magically.  You can use these felted balls instead of fabric softener sheets.  It actually works, provided the load isn't too heavy.  I made four balls, but will make another batch and have enough for larger loads.  Of course, if you like the smell of dryer sheets, these will not give you that lovely Spring-time aroma.

The link above will lead you to the instructions; however, there really is no magic to it and despite the blogger's exhortation to wind the balls "just so" you don't have to.  The instructions call for worsted weight Fishermen's Wool.  But you don't have to go out and buy that either.  I used repurposed feltable, fingering weight yarn from projects that just didn't work out.  I just had to wind more yarn to get the same size.  Also, I knotted the yarn together when it ran out and continued winding.  The only thing I had to do was to do the exact opposite of my mother's instructions.  Instead of winding the ball loosely, the balls of yarn had to wound really tight.

Oh, and if you have cats who like wool, shut the dryer door after removing the wash or the balls may end up in the cat's food bowl.   

For a change a pair of non-short row socks

Happiness is finding two skeins of hand-spun yarn that you didn't realize you had.  Spun by my youngest daughter from Corriedale roving.  The color is a light gray with a tinge of perriwinkle and I mean a tinge. The yarn is spun in a heavy sock weight and tightly twisted, so it should wear well.  I think I found just the right pattern for it.  The pattern is by Sonja Koehler and can be found on Ravelry under Sonja's Sockenland .  While the pattern is written both in English and German, the group  is almost all in German.  It's a good thing I can still read German; however, my writing abilities have deteriorated over the years.  At times, I have difficulty remembering which words are masculine, feminine or neutral, particularly with words that have been adopted from American English.

The name of the pattern is "Pfaffenwinkel" or Priests' Corner.  I was hesitant to use the name since the word "Pfaffen" was a slightly or not so slightly derogatory word for "priests," depending on the region you lived in,  and I definitely lived in an area where few people were catholic.  While most Catholic children went to a Catholic school, there were a few that attended the local village grade school. We certainly had our "priests' corner" on the school yard and more than one fight broke out on the line of separation. Of course, when I was a child, girls didn't fight. Once I started 5th grade, I went to a secondary school for bratty and precocious girls.  I have no idea what today's school system in Germany looks like, but in my time those kids who were smart went to a different school starting with 5th or 6th grade.  There seemed to be none of the sectarian separation I experienced in grade school. 

But back to "Priests' Corner."  I did what most of us do when we want to find out something:  I googled.   And here is what I found and it's in English.  I also found out the name was given to this part of Bavaria in the 18th century due to the large number of abbeys and pilgrim churches.  It's only taken 73 years to learn that this area of Bavaria had a nickname. While it is a beautiful area, in my opinion the Black Forest and the rest of Swabia are even more beautiful.  Old regional rivalries are hard to bury.  For those in Michigan think of football:  UofM vs. Ohio State. 

And there is enough yarn left to knit another pair of socks.  Yeah!

Knit on Merrily.

It's that time of the year...

...when once again it becomes fun to just go for a drive on the back roads of our area of Michigan.  Each year Spring brings new discoveries.  For example this tree burl:  we've driven through this area a number of times, but never saw it before. Nature truly is a marvel.

We also made a drive to Ludington, Mich. State Park and look what we saw?  Have you ever seen a salmon net pen?  Well now you have. We were there just at the right time.  According to information posted by State park staff "about 250,000 salmon are delivered to the Big Sable River net pens.  The fish are fed in the pens by battery-operated feeders.  The pens are covered with chicken wire to prevent predation by raccoons, herons and gulls.  Fish are in the pens for about three weeks, or until they smolt and lose their parr marks (vertical bars on the body).  The net rearing also helps the fish to imprint on the site, enabling them to return as adults in three years."

 

Now back to knitting. 



 



 





In the pink...

...socks that is.  A quick pair of short-row socks knit with 6-ply ONLine Wellness II.  This pair is also going into the Kazakhstan orphanage bin.

 



Knit on, merrily!