MDS&W & Sock Pentathlon Sock #2

In case you are wondering, that's "Maryland Sheep and Wool". I wasn't able to go last year, but this year, I was SOOOOO there.

I took a half day on Friday and took the train down to Baltimore. I've never taken Amtrak before and I have to say I had quite a pleasant experience. And I met a couple of nice people too! Once I got there, I took a taxi and went to MamaE's Party! Sadly, I didn't take ANY picture! I was too excited to meet E and SweetSheep!!! But I did get a photo with them the next day!

Sneaksleep came and meet me up at the party, and after the party, I went back with her to her house for a nap cap and got up for the big day.

And see who we saw!!! :)

Zarzuela!!! She had move to Jersey a couple of years back and I haven't seen her since then! It was so great to see her there!

There were lots of sheep, llamas, alpacas, angora bunnies, and of course, there were food, yarn, and people spinning.

And while I was eating lunch, I noticed quite a bit of buttercup:

After the first day, Sneaksleep and I went to the Ravelry party - it was fun, and a lot less people than I expected. We stayed for a little while before we went and met up with the rest of the New Haven gang for some fondue at Melting Pot.

That was the first time I've been to a Melting Pot and it was so much fun! Although a little on the pricey side, but it was totally worth it, especially the chocolate fondue!

Yum. (that was the s'mores fondue, you should try it if you go!)

Sunday was a lot less intense, even the traffic was a lot less. Sneaksleep and I say goodbye after an hour in the fairground, and I left with Sami, Karen, Brenda and Beth around noon. While I was in the car, I was busy working on the Sock Pentathlon Sock #2 - Berlin Muster. I finished first sock while in the car on the way home, but the sewing needles were in the trunk with my overnight bag, so I couldn't finish the grafting, so what is a girl to do?

Use the buttons I got from the festival and parties! (and you call me crazy, collecting pins and all!) And since I couldn't knit while I'm at work, slowly, I finally finished the pair this morning, although, not without a hitch - again, that stupid little sewing needle. So the engineer in me took over, and fond something to use:

Twisty-tie!!! Yes, you read that right! And a few minutes after, I have these:

Pattern - Berlin Muster by Kristin Benecken
Yarn Used - 0.56 skein of Valley Yarn Franklin
Needles - Harmony size 1
Gauge - 8 sts per inch
Knit - May 01, 08 to May 07, 2008
Modification - I reduced the purl stitch so it's only 56 stitches, although I probably could still go down a bit since the lace is quite stretchy.

The pattern was fairly easy, although everyone had a hard time to get it started due to various reasons. The yarn was wonderful. I love it so much I want to get more of it! I have plenty of it left to do another pair of socks! You can read my full review here.

Well, now both of that are blogged and in the bag, it is time for me to rest my eyes. Good Night.

Anticipation

Look what came in the mail!!!!

This is MY original cube from Schrodinger. I totally forgot that today is the Sock Pentathlon pattern 2 release and I was suppose to be sitting around all day and knit that pattern until it is done! But with Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival being this weekend, I don't think that is going to happen! So I needed something that I can knit and walk with. After lots of searching Monday night, I decided on this cube. I absolutely love it! I can't wait to give it a test "walk"!

The other thing that came in the mail today is the summer issue of the Interweave Knits. I already saw the preview and I can't wait to be able to knit some of the pattern in it! So if you don't have a subscription, go out and get one when it's released in the stores!

So I've been reading on the Ravelry group of MDS&W and learning what to bring and wear, and I can't wait to go! I'll be taking Amtrak down to Baltimore, take a taxi to see MamaE's at her open studio, meet up with Sneaksleep, go to her house, chat/sleep, get up and go to the festival! I also plan on going to the Ravelry Party at Columbia if I'm not completely pooped out after day 1 of the festival. I still need to figure out where I want to go though - I want to try out some spinning wheel during this festival, and save up the $$ this year to get one next year. Oh I can't wait!!!

I better go get ready for that sock pattern. The next time I post, hopefully I will have some socks to show!!! And lots of pictures and loot I'm sure! :)

Sock Knitters Pentathlon #1

So I must be insane when AuntLizzy (Ravelry ID) messaged me and invited me to join the Sock Knitters Pentathlon (The Ravelry one is here) to celebrate the Olympics. At first I wasn't sure, but then I decided to join since I have two months to make a pair of socks.

But then, things changed. One of the knitters asked if the moderator would consider changing the pattern release time each time so it will be more fair to each continent. You see, the first pattern was released at midnight March 1st, so PST is still at 9pm and Europe just woke up, and Asia is in the middle of the day. If the moderator always release it at midnight EST, eastern US America will always have that disadvantage of not able to cast on right at the time of the pattern release.

I thought it was a legitimate question, but apparently not to some others. Some of the comments from these people are "Are you really that competitive? This is a celebration of the Olympics, not some crazy competition!" or "I'm just happy to participate and learn. There is no need to be so competitive!". And when one of the ladies from Sweden finished the pair of sock in 9 hours, the message became "Why would you stay up all night knitting it? Knitting should be fun and relaxing!"

So this is what I have to say - WTF???? Here is the definition of the Olympics:

Olympics Games: : the modern revival of the ancient games held once every 4 years in a selected country.

Need I say more? Olympics itself have many contests within it! Olympics IS competition and the whole point of a pentathlon was to compete on knitting socks! So I decided that I WILL stay up all night and finish those damn socks, just to prove my point!

Pattern - Jacobean by Julie Persinger
Yarn Used - Almost 2 balls of Regia Stretch Color in semisolid blue
Needles - Option size 0
Gauge - 8 sts per inch
Knit - March 01, 08 to March 02, 2008

Yes, you read that right. I stayed up Saturday from midnight all the way through, went to bed on Saturday at 11pm and got up at 9am and finished Sunday night.

I knitted these toe up with my usual magic cast on. I did modify the pattern to fit my itty bitty feet. Instead of cast on 26 stitches, I only did 22, and increased until I have total of 58 stitches. But I forgot how stretchy the yarn was and if I were to do it again, I would decrease even more to 54 stitches only. The pattern itself was pretty easy to modify - I just decease the side panel charts to 4 knit stitches instead of 5 specified. Since I didn't have to do a lot of increase or decrease, I left the center panel alone, but I can see how easily the diamond pattern can be modified as well. I originally did the decrease bind off but it wasn't as flexible as I needed since I'm more of a tight knitter, so I redid the bind off using EZ's sewn bind off, the first one came out perfect, but the second one was still kind of tight. Oh well.

This pattern would certainly be rated as beginner pattern in my book - all you need to know is knit and purl. So for all your sock virgins out there - try this pattern!

Until the next socks pattern release (May 1st). I'm out.

psst... I'm ranked #28 so far... But due to some people who can't follow instructions, there are some "In Progress" photos in the "Finished" folder. So I should really be 27, but I have a feeling that I will be stuck in 28. No, I'm not competitive at all. :P

33

Today is David's birthday. He got a card from his friend and the card said,

"It's your birthday, and I think it's great that we're friends who can grow old together."

Inside of the card said, "You First!"

I thought that was a fun and cute card.

I didn't get him a card. But I did give him a gift first thing this morning, the secret project -

Pattern - My own, Red Sox Socks
Yarn Used - Almost 2 balls of Cascade Fixation in red and .5 ball in white
Needles - Option size 2
Gauge - 6.5 sts per inch
Knit - January 31, 08 to February 19, 2008

I knitted this toe up using my usual magic cast on, increased to the amount of stitches needed and switched to red until the heel, which I put the front on another needle to hold the stitches and joined with the white to do the short row heel. After the heel, I picked up the red and knitted the leg and did the 2x2 rib with red and white with red as knit and white as purl. I also knitted both socks at the same time so I can make sure they are the same size.

Since this was a surprise, I had to figure out another way to measure his feet - Socks here I come. I took one of his dress socks and used it as a template for the socks. I was very afraid that they are not going to fit at the cuff because of the carrying yarn in the back, but it was perfect. The socks will go perfect with the 4 tickets at Fenway playing the Yankees.

Happy 33 Babe! And happy three years.

Honeycomb - Completed

Pattern - Honeycomb Socks by Chris Carroll for Schaefer Yarn
Yarn Used - 0.5 skeins of Schaefer Anne in Purple and Green
Needles - Option size 1
Gauge - 9 sts per inch
Knit - December 24, 2007 to January 05, 2008
Modifications - Lots. But I'm writing the directions and sending them Schaefer Yarn so they can update the pattern to the way I did it.

Overall this pattern isn't too hard. Once you figure out the special stitch, it's a piece of cake, plus it's easy to memorize where you are once you get a hang of it. The special stitch is always done on the purl stitch.

I was rather frustrated at first when I started because I had to rip back so many times. But once I realized that it wasn't me, I paid a lot more attention to the pattern and making notes on what I would do differently. Laura from Schaefer was happy with what I did and had asked me to write out the modification I did so she can implement to the pattern. I'm glad my hard work is being recognized.

By doing this pattern, I learned that a knitted in the round gauge and a flat gauge can be very different. I'll be doing all my gauges differently now for knit in the round projects. I also learned the Kitchener Stitch. Click to go to the Knitty tutorial. I really like the pictorial Knitty provided. I had heard horror stories about Kitchener stitch, but it was so easy! It's not easy to memorize but it's not very complicated. So glad I had the opportunity to try it.

And no, I didn't line up the colors intentionally. It just happened. I probably couldn't even plan it to make it happen!

On a completely different topic, you probably noticed my side bar looked a little different. I reorganized the order and I added a Work in Progress bar, courtesy of Ravelry!!! If you have Ravelry and you would like the status bar, just click here and ask for it. Speaking of Ravelry, I figured out how to add tab and reorganize my forum page. It's pretty nifty. Oh, and I also added my Finished Object Gallery - it's a slideshow from one of the widget. I had an album in Picasa Web called FO and just linked it and it works! missburrows had suggested me to use treasurelicious, which I had considered, but when I saw the slideshow widget, it was just easier.

Tomorrow, I'll probably get back and work on the much deserved Irish Hiking Scarf... It's only been on the shelf for only a year...

Oh, and did I tell you that my puppies are pushy and likes the bed more than I do?

"Merry, Happy Birthday, Year."

"I think I covered it all!" Said David as he slowly walk down the hallway at midnight to go to bed - as he put it - "Way passed my bed time!"

The dinner was fantastic last night and we didn't wait too long, which was good. I had the Victoria Crown Fillet with the horseradish crust and baked sweet potato was my side. I also tired their Sangria and it was delicious! :) We went home and watched some HGTV until 11:30 and then watched the Dick Clark's Rocking 2008 show. I was glad to see him back, not to say that I'm a personal fan or anything, but just to see him healthy enough to host another year of the ball drop show in NYC is a very nice start of the new year.

On the way home from dinner last night, we stopped by to see the Fantasy of Lights. It was their last night of showing. Here are some of the displays:

The welcome tunnel


The lighthouse


The carousel


The deer crossing us overhead


Little village


Giant wreath

This morning I woke up and made pancakes, and worked some more on the Honeycomb. Here is the progress:

And since I was taking pictures, I took one with the new organization in the cubby hole:

So inspired by my fellow knitter friends, here is a summary of what I've done in the knitting world in 2007:

Falling Leaves - my Summer of Socks 2007 KAL, first sock KAL, first pair of socks using magic cast on toe up technique, first pair of toe up socks and first 2 socks in 2 circulars needles. For those folks who don't know what that means, it just means I made two socks at the same times using two needles.

Swan Lake (MS3) - my first lace project, ever! my first stole, first beaded knitwear, first mystery knit along.

Cabled Pullover - my first sweater that required seaming. All pieces have cables all the way through and I learned how to cable without the cable needles. Best trick ever!

Petrol and Petrol Modfied - Vests for my dad. These didn't really take that long, but they sure did feel like they took forever because of the forever stockinette stitches. They did however earned me Harmony :).

Hemlock Ring Blanket - It is a gorgeous blanket, despite the fact I had a lot of problem with the yarn, but I got my money back, so no complaints. My mom absolutely loved it. She took it home the day after it was completed.

Petal Dishcloth - my first dishcloth ever. It is a cute and super fast pattern. Made it with wool and my Christmas Swap partner is using it as a doily for her candle that I got her.

Diamond Spires Shawl - Second shawl, but using a DK weight yarn. This was a model knit for Schaefer Yarn. Loooove the yarn. First model knit for Schaefer Yarn.

Baby Cable Rib Neckwarmer/Headband - I knitted this in under TWO hours! Fastest knit ever! I made this for my new German friend who I got to know through the Christmas Swap. She had sent me a beautiful package for Christmas and I in term returned the favor.

Christmas Ornaments - I made a grand total of 18 of them!!! And I got Anphoe, JennM and Knelley all hooked on making them!

Vine - It was a super fast knit and my second pair of mitts. They were a very fast knit and was for my future SIL.

Knitted Tees - I knitted three of those for Farmhouse Yarns. It was the first model knitting I've done and first top down knitted shirt I've made. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of them, nor blog about them for some reason. Oh well. Carol said she'll get them back before June so maybe I'll get some pictures then and I can put it on my Ravelry.

Phew~ there you have it. My knitted items for 2007. My other knitting accomplishments in 2007 includes:

1. I joined Ravelry.
2. I started going to Thursday SnB, which I wish I've done earlier. The ladies I sit and knit with are amazing. I'm grateful for having them as my friends. My Wednesday buddies, don't worry, you are still my friends - without you guys, I would have just rot in my own apartment! ;) (According to the Yale's Daily, I started going to SnB because I had no friends...)
3. I got a Yarn Wall!
4. I joined my first ever swap, got burned, but my second swap was wonderful. Through the swap, I have now three new friends - Irene, Andrea and Robin.
5. I had multiple projects on WIP at the same time!!!!
   
6. I started a KAL (Knit Along). Although I haven't yet started the project yet...
7. I organized my knitting pattern into sleeves and put them all in a binder.
8. I received a swift as birthday present so I never had to ask David to help again... hmmm... I think I just figure out why he got me a swift...
   

I'm sure I forgot some but that's all I can think of now. Besides the above, I also started following some food blogs, mainly on gluten free recipes and am very inspired by it. I also made a wedding webpage and planned most of the wedding, pick out the bridesmaid dress, sent out the save the date, and started a registry.

For 2008, here are some of the things I would like to accomplish:

1. Finish all the wedding knitting on time.
2. Reduce 20% of my stash by making more projects.
3. Finish Irish Hiking Scarf.
4. Finish Secret of the Stole I.
5. Finish Aspen Top Down Sweater.
   
6. Continue to model knit with Schaefer - although I really need to manage it so I don't overwhelm myself.
7. Start Autumn Rose Pullover - Fair Isle here I come!
   
8. Felt something. May it be clogs or bags.
9. Learn to spin if we move and have more room.
10. Learn to dye if we move and have more room.

Well I think that's a lot to do already! I better get cracking!!! Besides the knitting goals, here are some of my other goals for 2008:

1. Be nice. Not to say I'm not nice, but sometimes I'm not, especially when I am losing my patience, which leads to no. 2
2. Be patient.
3. Complete all wedding details by mid-August. We'll see how this one goes...
   
4. Experiment with gluten free cakes - maybe I can make the wedding cupcakes?? Or at least have the recipes to do it? We tired Baby Cakes at NYC, they were good, but we weren't completely thrilled with them.
5. Spend more time on my business. I know I can do it, but it's the motivation part of it... Knitting? Work? hmmm which one to pick?

I'm sure I have more, but this is what I got so far. If i remember more, I'll sure to add them into the list.

Have a Happy, Healthy, Safe and Superb New Year.

Honeycomb Update

So I sat on my butt all day to work on Honeycomb, and here is the first sock in it's full glory:

Ta-da!

Here is the view off my foot:

Now I'm going to bed, because in 50 minutes, it will be a special day. But before I leave, just let me show you how outrageous Mick is sometimes:

That is me sitting OVER him on the coach because he refused to leave my seat! No, I'm NOT sitting on top of him, those are just my legs and my monkey blanket over him. Soon he go too hot and moved down, with a big sigh.

Here is a picture of my pretty girl being pushy:

Even when she is pushy, she is so darn cute, especially with those cute little bows! (can you tell I can't get over how cute those bows are on her?)

Pretty Dogs and New Additions

We took the dogs to be groomed today. Look!

Aren't they pretty? They are soooooo soft! Mick is Elvis and Vanilla just plain darn cute with the two little bows!!!

And look what came in the mail!

I called KnitPicks right before Christmas about one of the cord not able to thread onto the needles, and the replacement came yesterday. There was hardly any wait on the phone and they didn't ask for the cord back at all!

And this came too!

But I can't reveal what's inside yet because it contains something for Anphoe!

Speaking of mail, I got an email from michou - she received the little package I put together for her. It was more of a Happy New Year present than Christmas, but it got there none the less. Her older son liked the Winnie the Pooh board book set I sent along with the package. Apparently he now thinks all women that has long black hair "Jenn!" So cute :) I must figure out a way meet them when we go on our honeymoon in 2009.

When we dropped off the dogs for grooming today, we went to Barnes and Noble and gotten these:

And I got these when we were in Michigan:

I want to experiment with cupcakes and hopefully come up with some gluten free processed-sugar free versions of them and maybe, just maybe, in time for the wedding and use those as wedding cakes. And see the doggie needles? They are so cute that David thought I should have them, even if I don't use them.

I made a little progress on the sock. But with the game on, I should probably make some great progress.

Go Patriots!

ps. One last thing - we worked on our wedding registry today on Amazon. Setting up a registry is a much harder task than I had anticipated!!!

My Version of Christmas 2007

So much had happened during these past few days it's hard to figure out where to start! So I guess I'll start where I left off.

Lots of presents for Colin were wrapped by mom. As we put up the Christmas tree, we realized the main branch of the tree was missing!!! Now where do you get a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve???? But we made due and found this at Lowes:

And look what's hanging on the tree!

We had Christmas dinner on Christmas eve since David and I were leaving at noon on Christmas Day. Colin really wanted to open the presents but somehow we convinced him to open it on Christmas morning.

Needless to say, he woke up super early on Christmas Day. Terry made Waffles on his new George Foreman Grill. It was very very good and easy to clean! Unlike the older ones, this one has removable plates that you can put them in the dishwashers and actually wash them!

After the breakfast, Colin was finally able to open his presents:

And he opened the big one last:

David and I bought him the Smart Cycle and a game to go with it. He loves it and he asked to play with it three times that day!

We left after all the presents were opened. On the way home, after much discussion (maybe 2 seconds), we decided to take the detour up to Niagara Falls. And here are some of the pictures I snapped while I was there:

The upper rapids


The other side of American Falls


The Horseshoe Falls


We trying to get the picture with the fall


David trying to throw one of the ice sticks that fell off from the railing


All the ice!


A squirrel posing for the picture

We left the park and decided to go to the Casino next to the park and play some Keno. As you can recall, the last time we played it, we won $150!!! But what do you know, they DIDN'T have Keno!! So we walked around and sat down at the Wheel of Fortune penny slots. We had no clue what we were doing, but all of the sudden the bonus round came up during one of the hits and we spin and it stopped at 10000 on the wheel! We looked at each other, and the screen was lit up blinking at us - we had just won $100!!!! But the waitress lady won't let me take a picture, so we took the ticket out and ran outside to get a shot of it before we cashed it:

We had $3.85 left from the $10 we put in. We left happy and $93.85 up, totally paid for the hotel room the night before and then some.

The rest of the drive home was very uneventful, which was a good thing. While driving through, we went pass a town name Deposit, NY. I commented: What the hell is in Deposit? Why would you name a town that anyways? Plus I was bored because it was dark so I couldn't knit, and there was no radio station for the past 15 minutes...

We got home, sort through the mail and got a piece of mail from the Good Sam Club. Guess where it came from?

Deposit, NY.

'nuff said.

On the knitting front, I finished Vine and gave them to my future SIL Page. Here is the detail:

Pattern - Vine by Iris G. on MagKnits
Yarn Called For - 1 ball elann.com Peruvian Baby Silk in #5420 seashell pink
Yarn Used - 0.5 skeins of Jaeger Alpaca in Brown
Needles - Option size 1
Gauge - 7 sts per inch
Knit - December 22, 2007 to December 23, 2007
Modifications - Reverse row 46 and 47 so there are two knitted row between like the rest of the pattern.

Page likes the gloves. One bad thing about the dark color, the pattern hardly shows. If I were to make it again, which I most likely will, I'll make it in lighter colors to show up the vine pattern.

I am currently making the Honeycomb Socks for Schaefer Yarn. I heard back from Laura and had made some adjustment. Then the engineer in me figured out something else and I had gotten approval from Laura to make the change. I'll be submitting the changes to Laura at the end so she can modify the pattern.

Well, I should probably go knit that now...

Happy New Year to all!