So now she tells me

I finished one toe-less sock and am about a fourth of the way through the second. It's kind of funky, but I think it'll work, although I hate the yarn. Did I already mention that? ;) Hopefully the socks will be softer and more comfy after I wash (and dry) them.

Melissa called this morning and I excitedly announced that I'd completed one toe-less sock and was working on the other, and I hoped to finish it soon so I could get them in the mail to her before camp ends. "Mom, I won't be able to wear them. They made an announcement that we aren't allowed to wear toe-less socks." hmmmm.... The staff is on them! I guess some of the other girls were cutting the toes off of their socks, and here Melissa was going to be the first with hand-knitted toe-less socks. Ah well.... Maybe she can use them at college in the Fall.


Sorry that this isn't a very interesting or imaginative image.

And, on the subject of socks, I saw the cutest pair of socks knit with scrap yarn. What a cute idea! Maybe it's something that I can do with all my yarn scraps. *sigh* another project....

Thank you Beth Brown-Reinsel!

I'm ready to full my French Market Bag, but all the directions I've found on the net and in my knitting magazines for fulling involve the use of a top-loading washing machine. Sorry, we've got a front loader, so I'm opting for fulling by hand (Yes, I know the topic of fulling in a front loader was done to death on the KnitList, but since I wasn't doing it at the time, I didn't pay attention.)

If you are a KL member, you can also reference these threads:
Message 28123
Message 57034
These are probably the best posts on the topic that I could find over the past 6 months.

(I had a few moments of serious deja vu when Reminders for KnitList Chat showed up in the KL search results! LOL)

Further searching came up with an answer from the ever-knowledgeable Kim Salazar.

As I said in my earlier post, I don't expect the bag to shrink very much because I've used a double strand of yarn and it's not knit in as loose a gauge as the original Knitty pattern. Even knit with a double strand of yarn, the bag is not heavy.

Here are the pre-fulled dimensions of my bag:



If you know of any other sources of information on hand-fulling knit objects, please leave a comment. I won't be able to get to it for a few days yet, so any other advice is very welcome and TIA.

knitting away!

Hi women! I tried posting the other day and somewhere the post disappeared. I hate that when there is just enough time to write ONCE and no more. Here I am. I am working on a baby sweater for my Italian teacher's baby boy...due in October. I am making a very basic pullover out of Lion brand cotton and acrylic. I wanted a rather flat yarn as the front has a very subtle seed stitch heart. Not too girly!

I think however I will leave the shoulder open and the neck and create a button closure. Any ideas on how I must alter a normal pattern for this adaptation? I think it will be easier to ge t it over the baby's head. Did I say I am making a one year size. Yes one year. It is a nice medium blue and the pattern stands out nicely. I can't wait to finish it and on to another new project or......maybe one that stands unfinished!

The best laid plans...

This isn't supposed to happen to confirmed yarnaholics! I've nearly run out of black yarn and I still have two more handles to go. So far, this bag has eaten up almost two full skeins of black Nature Spun and about a half skein of natural, which, as anyone who is familiar with Nature Spun knows, is a lot of yarn.

As I was knitting along I kept saying to myself that there's nothing to worry about, there's lots of black yarn in my stash. Only trouble is that black yarn is Lamb's Pride, a single ply, worsted weight, whereas Nature Spun is a multiple ply.

I ripped back a few rounds and then started knitting with one strand of Nature Spun and one of Lamb's Pride. So far, I can't tell the difference; it looks the same and it feels the same as the rest of the knitting. The proof, I guess, will be in the felting.

What's Black and White (and not Red) all over?

As usual, I'm not playing by the rules. I'm using a double strand of Nature Spun worsted weight on fewer stitches than what is called for in the pattern. Knitting with a double strand is making this bag dense and I fully realize that it is not going to felt as well as the original, single-strand pattern, but I like it.

Another 6 cm to go and then I start casting off for the handles.

O the luxury

O the luxury of not having any current projects.....

'Course, that's never stopped me from beginning a new project... and another new project... and another... *grin*

Along with my current WIP (three scarves, a sweater, two sleeveless shells.... uh, I think there's one other, but who knows?) and enough yarn for about 10 projects, I'm knitting a first, I do believe, toeless socks. Melissa attends Interlochen in the summer and the dress code requires that she wear light blue socks. Since we're from the desert, Tucson, Arizona to be exact, she's used to wearing flip flops. Two years ago, her friend, Nora, wanted to wear sandals and she got around the dress code by going to the art studio and painting her feet and legs light blue. Anyway, Melissa requested 'toeless' socks so she could wear her flip flops. I tried to convince her to let me knit toe socks, but she thinks these will be more comfy. She leaves in less than a week, so I've got to get knitting here.

I'll post a pic soon!

What to knit?

This!

And a Big Welcome to artmama!

Happy To be Here

Hi. I have started knitting again after a hiatis. Some babies being born and easy project or should I say small project coming into view.

There's a first (or second) time for everything

First of all, a huge thank you to Pearl, who has graciously agreed to be a contributor here and to help me in ironing out the bugs in setting up this group blog. She truly is one of life's gems.

So, what's this blog all about? I won't hide from you the fact that I set up this group blog for a selfish reason, which is to get me knitting again after nearly a two-year hiatus. I'm hoping that with the help of a few good friends like Pearl I'll be inspired to tackle this huge amount of yarn that I collected during my insanely yarnaholic years. (We're talking a 20-year backlog here.) I must admit, though, compared with some of my yarnaholic friends I feel absolutely parsimonious!

Since summer is nearly here on the coast of Israel, with its accompanying high temps and humidity, I'm starting off with small projects, maybe even cotton. Normally I don't like to knit with cotton because it doesn't have much stretch and hurts my hands. A while back I started knitting a pair of Kim Salazar's See Saw socks with a really nice Dutch yarn called Cotton 8, but even that seems a bit of a challenge as a pick-up project right now.

What to knit? What to knit?