tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1 2008-05-05T14:26:10Z The knitting adventures of Cookie and Kristi Movable Type 3.33 tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.623 2008-05-05T14:26:26Z 2008-05-05T14:26:10Z

There's a lot going on over here and a bunch of things I haven't posted about, so here's an attempt at a round-up of all the stuff that's slipped by. First, the Moselle socks are now available online. Amy knit...

available online. Amy knit the first sample sock, and I am.... what is this? I am knitting the SECOND sock. You see, the left and right socks are mirrored. And besides, how could I resist the Wollmeise? My gauge is a little different from Amy's, so I am getting different pooling. I'm actually planning to knit a whole third sock with matching gauge because the ball is ginormous. I mean, look at this thing! [As a side note, I also learned how I manage to bend so many metal needles. It's by shoving them over the leg with the super high instep.] While at the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling, I tried to get everybody to feel the Handmaiden Cashmere and Silk because it is absolutely heavenly to touch. Somehow I convinced myself that everybody should have some, including myself, and that there really ought to be a nice project that uses a single skein. So voila! A single skein scarf that uses the same stitch pattern as the Moselle Socks (ignore the unwoven ends, please). Being unimaginative, I'm calling this the Mosella Scarf. I like that it zigs and zags at the edges, even if that meant it was more of a pain in the bum to block. :-) How's this for a close-up of the cashmere goodness? Mmmmm. I'm not sure what I'll do with the pattern once it's written up. It might be free for a limited time, or free to the first 100 people, or something. I dunno. Stay tuned. And what's this, have I taken up spinning? Nope. I got this for Kristi because we all know she needs more fiber. I sent it off on Friday as part of a bigger goody package, so it should be getting to her any second now which is good because she could use something nice to look forward to today. It's been a bad weekend, but I won't get into that. :-( The fiber is Gale's Art black blue faced leicester also from The Loopy Ewe. A bunch of people have asked me how I carry my sock projects around or what this weird contraption I have is, and I love seeing the light bulbs go off when I explain it. It's a Knitzi and it's beautiful wood. I'm a sucker for wooden knitting accessories (except needles). They come in different lengths specifically for your dpn length. Let me demonstrate. First, you screw off the top. Then you stick in your needles along with sock in progress and all. See how the hole is cleverly designed to let it sock dangle out? And screw the top back on. Perfect for travel. And what else have I been knitting that I can show off? Really boring things apparently. - A plain ribbed sock using Pagewood Farm handpainted sock yarn from Kristi. I <3 it, and I lovingly refer to the color as baby poop. - Some would call these single socks, but I prefer to call them a PAIR of mismatching socks. Both stockinette with 2x2 ribbing at the cuff and knit with BMFA STR lightweight. Left sock is the Harlotty colorway, right sock is Prove It All Night. Sorry if my colors are all messed up. I have a new laptop, and the monitor is not calibrated. - A swatch of the BMFA Woobu in Thraven. I LOVE the drape of this stuff. Can we say sweater? The hanks are HUGE. Those two balls in the above photo are from one hank. It barely fits on my stool! More randomness: - Kristi thinks Debbie has about 20% of her yarn stash in Ravelry now. When she finishes photographing it all and uploading, she is so going to have the biggest stash ever. EVER. - I can't believe I never blogged this. - There has been some stash enhancement. I'll have to post that later.]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.622 2008-05-02T19:16:16Z 2008-05-02T21:31:34Z

Thanks to everyone for all of the feedback on the Froot Loop socks! I'm loving seeing people start to knit them on Ravelry too ... there's even a "Groop" started for a knitalong! Now, back to our irregularly (at best)...

Kristi Froot Loop socks! I'm loving seeing people start to knit them on Ravelry too ... there's even a "Groop" started for a knitalong! Now, back to our irregularly (at best) scheduled programming. What better than a little Handspun Yarn Friday? This yarn is a 2-ply I made from Yarn Wench merino in the Poodleskirt colorway:
This was my first yarn plied on my new plying head for my Lendrum. My thoughts on the plying head are 1) Wow, awesome, lots of yarn fits on this bobbin and 2) I wish there were more ratios. That's really about it. I'm excited to ply my Rauen S2S kit on it because I'll be able to fit all 8.5 oz. on the one bobbin, I think. BIG hank o' yarn, I will love thee. But my legs will probably be tired from all that treadling (I like my sock yarn tightly plied). On to the next bobbin of Rauen I go!]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.621 2008-04-30T16:26:23Z 2008-04-30T17:31:42Z

I'm so excited that the Knitty Spring Surprises went up, and that my sock pattern [Rav link], Froot Loop, is one of them! The photoshoot for this sock was fun -- Debbie came over to help and Clinton also tried...

Kristi Knitty Spring Surprises went up, and that my sock pattern [Rav link], Froot Loop, is one of them! The photoshoot for this sock was fun -- Debbie came over to help and Clinton also tried to help. He really couldn't stop getting excited that there was food on the floor. This may have been why the "action shots" with Froot Loops flying didn't turn out as I'd hoped. Oh, well! Here are a couple of "outtakes" from the photoshoot (more on Flickr):
See the falling Froot Loops in that one? Yeah. Not what I'd hoped for :)
I hope you enjoy knitting them if you decide to! ETA: Ravelry link! ]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.620 2008-04-29T21:41:26Z 2008-04-29T22:07:45Z

This past weekend, I didn't go do more on the trapeze. I also didn't go to St. Louis to go to Spring Fling with Cookie. Instead I went to an autocross school. Sadly, the pictures from the autocross school didn't...

Kristi autocross school. Sadly, the pictures from the autocross school didn't turn out that well. I was mostly busy driving or being a passenger. Here's one of Andy before his first run through the course: On Sunday, I let Clinton do the daredevil stuff. He came with me to Debbie's house and hung out with her Samoyeds while we took pictures of yarn for her stash on Ravelry. Let's just say it's a work in progress. Here's the dogs when they found something they could all agree on: Food is Good. Boris adored Clinton; followed him everywhere like a big fluffy shadow. I also finally finished the Trystero sock, and it will be shipped off to Shelridge Farm tomorrow: The Brooklyn Handspun sock yarn is all wound in a ball and ready to be cast on! Now, what should I do this weekend to make up for my Maryland Sheep and Wool envy?]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.619 2008-04-27T10:09:36Z 2008-04-27T08:02:45Z

I'm at the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling, and it's been an awesome weekend. This is the first time I ever met Wendy from WendyKnits. This was really cool because the first sock I ever knit was Wendy's Generic Toe-up Sock...

Loopy Ewe Spring Fling, and it's been an awesome weekend. This is the first time I ever met Wendy from WendyKnits. This was really cool because the first sock I ever knit was Wendy's Generic Toe-up Sock Pattern. So Wendy has definitely had a part in my current sock obsession. I got to see Sheri again. She is just the sweetest yarn seller ever. And look at how cute she is! (She wanted me to take a picture of her without glasses, but this one is better. Sorry Sheri!) I got to sleep in this gorgeous king-sized bed. It was so big I wasn't sure what to do with all that space! You see, normally I share a full-sized bed with the husband and the cat. Those of you who have cats probably know that they somehow end up taking up a HUGE chunk of the bed by pushing you over slowly at night until the next thing you know the humans are all squished on one side, just about ready to fall off. I spent the whole time sleeping on one-third of the bed. We got goody bags, but I'm going to leave my goodies wrapped until I get home so I can extend the surprise and presents just a little bit longer. There were also patterns in the goody bags especially designed for the Spring Fling -- one from Wendy and one from me. Mine is on the right and is knit in the wonderful Wollmeise 100% superwash yarn. It is named Moselle after the Moselle River that runs through Germany (though Moselle is the English name for it). The sample sock was knit by Amy and we IMed one evening brainstorming for names. The German river idea was perfect because the pattern zigs and zags like a river and the yarn is from Germany. The pattern will be available for download from cookiea.com sometime after I get home (expect May 1 or 2). Claudia, the maker of Wollmeise yarn, flew in from Germany to attend the Fling. She is a riot and just absolutely wonderful. Whenever she gets excited she starts to exclaim "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" It's always three times. We went to a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant and she was in wonder over the tender beef, the flames, and the food tossing. She is camera shy but allowed photos of her beautiful socks. I love the asymmetry of it all! Of course I headed to Loopy Central. Here are some pictures to show you just how cute it is there. The sock wall. There are a couple Monkeys there! Comfy sheep: And of course, tons of yarn. I especially loved seeing yarns from Indie dyers I've met or have talked to such as Nancy from Chameleon Colorworks. The Evolution is sooooo soft. (We'll be together at TNNA in June.) Gryphon and I exchanged e-mails back before she started the yarn business to talk about our futures in knitting. Back when we were starry-eyed knitters. Okay, I think we are still starry-eyed knitters in love with all things knitting. It's great to see how popular her yarn has become that this is all that's left: This was one of the Dream in Color walls at Loopy Central. The gals who run DiC have kids who go to school in the town where I grew up. Small world, eh? I even got to meet new-to-me dyers like Sarah of Tempted Yarns. Here she is showing off some of her own handpainted yarn. The Loopy Elves were absolutely wonderful. They made the cutest little cupcakes EVER. Unfortunately (and I am TOTALLY banging my head over this) I forgot to bring the battery charger for my camera, so I missed all sorts of goodies I wanted to take pictures of including: - Janice and the other elves - Webguy, Knitting Daughter, and all-around handy husband - Allen of Numma Numma yarns - Kellie from New Zealand! - Dawne from Winnipeg. She was surprised I've been there! - Valerie from Toronto. I <3 Toronto. - Karen's Freshisle Fibers Watermelon sock. - Capi, the Loopy Legend, and all the other Loopy Groupies - Knitters singing a song just for Sheri - The absolutely stunningly beautiful blanket knit for Claudia I'm sure someone else got pictures, so please send me the links if you have them! I'll take pictures of the goodies and yarns I may have gotten when I get home to recharged batteries. In the meantime, I leave you with this beauty I absolutely could not resist. And now that I've called security on the party-goers next door to me (strangely blasting rap and singing along with it), it's nice and quiet and perfect for sleeping. Good night! ]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.618 2008-04-25T18:04:03Z 2008-04-25T18:26:26Z

It's finally Springtime in Colorado. I think. Last time it snowed was last Thursday. I sort of miss the late January - early February start to Spring (but then, what's Winter) from NorCal. The last few times I've been back,...

Kristi If you're into flowers, I put up some more pictures of flowers in our backyard in my Flickr photostream. I also have some pretty yarn to share. This yarn is from Brooklyn Handspun, and I'll be using it to design a sock (after I finish up the Trystero sample; I got sidetracked by spinning): She calls this yarn base her Soft Spun Plus. She's not kidding about soft, by the way. This stuff is very soft. The colorway is "Twinkle". I finished up a bobbin of singles for my Rauen s2s kit, so I started in some Yarn Wench merino. Pictures of that soon!]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.617 2008-04-22T15:30:09Z 2008-04-22T16:19:18Z

By now you've already read all the other blog entries about Sock Camp, I'm sure. But I just don't think the magical wonderfulness of an entire week surrounded by hard core sock knitters can be done justice by the interwebs....

Alice, originally from Canada, but hailing currently from London, England. Did I mention hardcore? She is wearing a sweater she bought at one of the alpaca farms on the way to sock camp. Alice was quite the instigator. She had afterparty after afterparty all night long. Those girly looking fruity drinks? They had a big kick and were named the "Ghost of Alice" after the second owner's wife. She was quite the character apparently. Toilet paper covers were made, but unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them. I really wish I had because they were things of beauty I tell ya. Instead, I think I did manage to get the whole line-up of knitted sock monkeys. This is me taking a picture of Stephanie taking a picture of me taking.... (you get the idea). You can see her beautiful sock monkey in the foreground. And what is that he's wearing??? Yes, that's right, she stayed up into the wee hours of the night to knit her monkey an argyle vest. An ARGYLE VEST, people! Madness, I tell ya! All the monkey clothing and accessories were too cute. You'll find in this picture a baseball jersey, a joint, a beret, scarves, bongos, and a cowboy hat. And Debbie? She might have been the craziest of them all. She wanted to be surrounded by all of the sock monkey love. In case you didn't get enough sock monkey love, I think I got pictures of all them in my Flickr photoset. And lest you think all we did was knit sock monkeys, there was lots of other activity going on. Tina, in an attempt to prove that you really can knit with anything, got ten poor knitters to knit with the most absurd knitting "needles" ever, ranging from pepperoni sticks to hangers. Poor Stariel, a vegetarian, knit her fastest with the dreaded stinky pepperoni stick. Elizabeth (who graciously drove me through the snow to the airport) looks so peaceful knitting with .... what is that? a cake slicer handle? There were cute shoes and knitterly paraphernalia everywhere you turned. There was a crazy camp song, written by Stephen. I don't want to know where Chappy's hands are in that photo. The back-up singers were well choreographed. Cat, Stephanie, Tina and Debbie attempted to knit with turkey basters. I managed to knit a sock monkey and a monkey sock. This is the monkey sock in STR mediumweight Ravenscroft (pay no attention to the colors, the lighting there is terrible). I gave it to Cat, and I promised her a non-matching sock in the future. Here is my one legged monkey with single sock (to go with my one-legged chicken from last year). He's also got only one eye, and he's hanging out with Cat's monkey. Note that her monkey is knitting toe-up sock on two circs. Genius! And possibly the craziest part of all - it snowed! Next up? I'm off to the Loopy Ewe's Spring Fling! ]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.616 2008-04-21T02:59:19Z 2008-04-21T03:19:13Z

Ok, this post is totally not knitting related. But I had so much fun this weekend, I had to share. My friend Dana came to visit from L.A. and we decided we wanted to try something new. Somehow it came...

Kristi My first flight: Landing: This part is difficult: This is bad form. This is my brain revolting against the idea of jumping: More pictures in my Trapeze set on Flickr. Hope you all had a great weekend too!]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.615 2008-04-18T17:27:48Z 2008-04-18T21:19:15Z

So, I finished my Mingus, and sent it off to Shelridge Farm. Here it is before being shipped: Next up on my Shelridge/Cookie A. knitting agenda is Trystero: And I think that will be the last one for at least...

Kristi Mingus, and sent it off to Shelridge Farm. Here it is before being shipped: Next up on my Shelridge/Cookie A. knitting agenda is Trystero: And I think that will be the last one for at least a little bit. I really do enjoy just knitting the one sock and sending it off, though, surprisingly so. Meanwhile, I have done a bit of spinning on that Rauen Sheep 2 Shoe Kit, but it doesn't look significantly different from the last time I showed it to you. I have also played with my drop spindle from Spindlewood Co. quite a bit recently. It's such a great size to bring with me, and I have even found myself spindling at home a bit more than I used to. Right now I'm working on this 70% superwash merino/ 30% alpaca top from Wolf Creek Wools: Have a good weekend, everyone! p.s. Hey, all you Ravelers! If you haven't given to RavelRaiser '08 yet, there is still time. I even donated a skein to the handspun stash (It's BFL from Spunky Eclectic spun 3-ply by me): ]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.614 2008-04-04T23:22:13Z 2008-04-04T23:39:15Z

I've been doing a lot of sample knitting recently. As Debbie [ravelry link] said to me the other day "I kind of opened Pandora's box there for you, didn't I?" Well, she kind of did, but clearly, I'm enjoying it!...

Kristi Debbie [ravelry link] said to me the other day "I kind of opened Pandora's box there for you, didn't I?" Well, she kind of did, but clearly, I'm enjoying it! I was working on some Mingus socks for Shelridge Farm to use in their booth at shows, but I had some slow downs. First, I wasn't so happy with some stripey-ness: Then I started in a different color, which was working great: And then I got sidetracked by a different project with an earlier deadline. Can't say much about that other than it was a sample for the delightful Kristi, who just so happens to live not so far from me, so knitting a sample for her was the perfect excuse to finally meet up! Not only do we have the same name, but we also have a lot in common -- we really seem to order the same food in restaurants, for one. In the tradition of me having a fabulous time when I hang out with my knit-buds, there are no pictures. Suffice it to say beer was tasted. Then I started a design project which is now keeping me from my Mingus sock. But Mingus is almost done despite that older picture up above. So hopefully early next week. In a brief break that I just needed to take, I did spin a bit more with my Rauen Sheep 2 Shoe Kit from Blue Moon: It's coming along slowly, but it's coming along! By the way, if you're a Ravelry member, (and if you're not, maybe you should get on the list), be sure to check out the Ravelraiser Julie at Fricknits has put together!]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.613 2008-04-01T18:36:45Z 2008-04-04T04:20:03Z

I said I would have the patterns available for download by the end of March, and I really had to scramble to meet that deadline! Things are crazy busy over here at Chez Cookie. This is Django. Kristi knit it...

Django. Kristi knit it in Shelridge Farm Soft Touch Ultra because I had such a hard time photographing the Schaefer Anne. And this is Stricken. The name is a play on the German word to knit - stricken - because the sock uses German style twisted stitches. And this is Trystero, which for some reason shows up in my browser as a totally different color than it does in Photoshop. Grrrr. The name is from the book The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon. His writing cracks me up. They're available at CookieA.com. And lastly, the purple sock is not finished, not close, not happening before June. Why not? Because it hasn't happened yet, and the next two months are full of Sock Camp, Spring Fling, tax returns (ugh!), and looming book deadlines that have been keeping me awake at night. But, I am going to do the purple sock in a more Annie Modesitt-type fashion by setting up a yahoo group for people who want to volunteer test knitting it. So if you want to get your hands on the pattern as soon as possible, Join the Yahoo Group. [EDIT: the Yahoo group is now full. Thank you to everybody who volunteered!] BUT, it won't be out until May for the group at the very very earliest which means June at the earliest for everybody else. And just in case you don't know what purple sock I'm talking about, this is it (I did finish knitting it, but the pattern write-up is going to take so much longer): ]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.612 2008-03-21T19:08:35Z 2008-03-21T19:51:18Z

I had been thinking about a post about the next sample sock I am knitting out of the Shelridge Farm sock yarn, but then I got this package in the mail ... I bought some yarn from TheYoYo, and it...

Kristi Shelridge Farm sock yarn, but then I got this package in the mail ... I bought some yarn from TheYoYo, and it sure is purdy. Alyson and I are buds, and I had been impatiently waiting (read: constantly asking her about it) for her to dye some more sock yarn. I like what she does with the sock yarn. My wait paid off: Green as Night, a fingering weight yarn. More: And then there's this one, which is nearly impossible to photograph (at least with my camera): Texas Pete, a sportweight yarn. More: Also, for those of you wondering about my deal with Teenuh -- she fell down and bought into a 6-month sock club. Nice. :)]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.611 2008-03-14T16:25:25Z 2008-03-14T18:58:34Z

As some of you may know, Ravelry is starting to open up some of their pattern sale features. So, I have switched Sarcelle and Avery over to being available on Ravelry. I realized, though, that when I finally made Avery...

Kristi Ravelry is starting to open up some of their pattern sale features. So, I have switched Sarcelle and Avery over to being available on Ravelry. I realized, though, that when I finally made Avery available for sale, the blog was down, so I never really let people know about it, it just showed up in the sidebar. Here's a picture of an Avery that was test-knit for me by our friend Jeni (the green one) along with the one I knit: Also, in Ravelry pattern sale news, my buddy Alyson has released a sock pattern with all sales going back to Ravelry (except PayPal fees). Check out Bob's Party Socks on Ravelry or on Alyson's blog! I'll throw in a bit of pretty fiber to show you since it is Friday after all -- and fiber is yarn-to-be. This is Fleece Artist Merino/Silk that Debbie gave to me to thank me for the sample knitting I did for her. She got them at One Planet -- they were listed as Colors 62 and 64, respectively. Have a good weekend!]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.610 2008-03-07T16:16:18Z 2008-03-07T18:20:45Z

Whoops. When I said "Friday" in my last post, I really did mean I would post last Friday. Clearly that did not happen. So here it is Friday again, and time to show off some yarn. This is a (belated)...

Kristi Shelridge Farm booth a few times this year. Buffy and Don are such nice people, and it's always fun to get to see them and fondle the yarns. This year, Buffy asked Cookie about possibly carrying Cookie's patterns and then mentioned something about getting a sample knitter to knit some samples of some of the socks in the Shelridge Farm yarn. Guess who jumped at the chance? That's right, me. So we had some fun picking out a few colors to use for samples and then a few colors for me in exchange for doing the knitting. The first sock I did was Django, one of Cookie's new patterns in the Shelridge Farm Spring Green colorway. Here's the other yarns I have from Shelridge. The first two are for samples: And the others are alllll mine: On Saturday night, a few of the bobaknitters went out for dinner and then went to the Bobbin's Nest Studio for the Hazel Knits yarn release party they were having. There were a lot of nice colors of this yarn. I carried one around with me for a bit, but in the end decided I might not actually need more sock yarn (crazy, right?), and put it back. Luckily, Hannah came to my rescue and bought one that might as well have been called "The Kristi Colorway" as a belated birthday present. Instead of "The Kristi Colorway", she went with "Weekend Warrior". Probably a good choice. They also gave out a super-cute gift bag (swag, woot!) at Bobbin's Nest, with some Hazel Knits yarn, a pattern for baby socks, some Soak, and a set of Sublime Stitchings patterns (which I love, and need to learn how to embroider): By the way, our buddy Jeni also has a pattern available for adults in the same sock yarn, and you can find more info about that on Ravelry here. Oh, and remember that thing about too much sock yarn? That might have been in part because the first night, I stopped by the Creatively Dyed booth (how cute is Diane?) and picked up this: ... and also went to the Tess booth and got a hank of the super sock and baby yarn: So, yeah. A fun time was had :) I wish I had more picture of people, but when I was talking to my friends, there was very little picture-taking going on! ]]> tag:www.knitanon.com,2008:/blog//1.609 2008-02-28T00:16:38Z 2008-02-28T01:19:23Z

There's a lot to say about Stitches West 2008, so I may have to break it up into a few posts. Thursday was the day of the market preview as well as the Ravelry meetup. I managed to not take...

Kristi On the left is my new Ravelry t-shirt -- how cute are those? And on the right is a t-shirt Cookie gave me that she got from City Knitting in Michigan. I love both of these shirts. And really, can one have too many sheep shirts? Actually, maybe don't answer that. Speaking of Ravelry, here is some more Ravelry swag. I never did fill out the passport -- too busy oohing over yarn/fiber and visiting friends. I love all of the buttons and pins, too! One of my goals for Stitches was to find a nice drop spindle (having loaned out my two drop spindles the week before, especially). And a nice drop spindle I found: I tried out a lot of the spindles at Carolina Homespun, but this was the one with the best mix of spinning and asthetics to me. It's a 3/4 oz. spindle from Spindlewood Co. and the wood is called Wenge. I also got some fiber: Click on the pictures for more information, if you like! I also picked up this cool dpn case at Sweet Grass Wools with a needle sizer since I was looking for a better needle sizer for the smaller sized needles: On Friday (I think), I'll share my new sample knitting project and some more yarn. We also went to the Hazel Knits yarn release party at the Bobbins Nest, so I'll show you the nice swag that Erin and Wendee had for us too! I'm saving the sock yarn for later, let's put it that way.]]>