Have you seen the new Knit.1?

I feel like it's been forever since Knit.1's last issue.  So they've finally got a new issue out and they have these socks from Cookie A, which I think are amazing: 

They are 90% of the reason why I bought the latest issue.  I love them.  That girl's brain is just wired in a way that spits out the most beautiful knit art.  They're called Marlene and are pattern #3.  Ravelry users can check out the pattern page here.

Which, by the way, if you love Cookie as much as I do....did you know she's coming out with a book?  Yes!  Check it out:

You can even pre-order it on Amazon right now for the screaming deal of $15.61.  You know I'm getting me a copy (well, technically I'm hoping someone will give me a copy for my birthday.  However, if that doesn't happen, I will be buying one.  Either way...I'm getting one.)  You can see a preview of the insides here.  What did I tell you?  $15.61 for this is a SCREAMING deal.

What to do? What to do?

I, while not as oddly garment-monogamous as Jenna Adorno, prefer to not have too many knitting projects going at once. I try to keep to one at a time unless that one project gets too big to carry around (or I'm trying to hide it from my husband), in which case, I may start something small like a sock so that I can knit during my lunch break without having to haul a whole sweater around in my bag.

But now I have the classic monogamous knitters dilemma: I want to do so much that don't know what to knit next! I thought I had it figured out last night, but my knit picks order arrived furthering my dilemma.

This is the scoop:

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I'm currently working on Ms. Marigold by Zephyr Style in TLC Cotton Plus (color: Lavender). I'd say I'm about halfway done. It's knit top-down and I'm about 2 inches below the V. I need to finish the body then add the ribbing to the V and the arm holes, weave in the ends etc. So between it being a bit large to haul around and I'm doing some waist/hip shaping, which requires trying it on every 4 rounds or so, it's not a really good traveling project any more.

So! I need to start something that can be my "small project" for a while. Now, while I know some of the options I'll show you below aren't small in the end, even sweaters start out small and if I do something like that, hopefully by the time sweater #2 gets too big to carry around, I'll be done with Ms. Marigold and can pick up another small project.

Option 1: Lacy summer top A

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Lacey top from Spring/Summer 2007 Vogue Knitting Magazine (I think I'd add sleeves) in Knit Picks CotLin in Desert Turquoise

Option 2: Lacy summer top B

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Different Lacy top from Spring/Summer 2007 Vogue Knitting Magazine in Knit Picks CotLin in Desert Turquoise

Option 3: Pomatomus Socks
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The very popular Pomatomus socks in Patons Kroy sock yarn in the Winter Eclipse colourway


Option 4: Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern

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Another popular sock, "Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern" from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks in my brand new Knit Picks Dancing in the Hula colorway. (picture of sock borrowed from GFTC on flickr)

Option 5: Something with this

(Lion Brand Magic Stripes sock yarn)

I'm thinking hiking socks for our camping trip this summer but I only have 1 ball and I'd need a second one to make a pair.

Option 6: My Second Hedera sock

I know I really need to do this or I will have a lonely sock but I need to buy another ball of yarn in order to do this one, so it keeps getting put off.

All that to say.....HELP!

What do you guys think I should do? Please place your vote (and include rationale if any) in the comments.

Finished Object Alert!

Rember this sad little sock?


With its sad little one-sided yarn overs? Well after a partial frog and a total yarn over makeover, my sad little sock has grown up and turned into this:

Ooh la la. I am very happy with how this sock turned out. My only previous sock attempt was very sad. I was a little nervous about whether or not this time things would turn out well (and therefore whether or not I would just have to call this one a "learning exercise" and never knit its mate) mostly because I have never knit lace before and also because I didn't use traditional sock yarn.

These are my sock's stats:
Needle size: 2
Gauge: 15 sts / 2 inches (little different than called for in the pattern)
Yarn: Moda Dea Baby Talk a 3 weight 55% nylon, 45% acrylic blend
Color: Lilac

Why did I pick such odd yarn? Well, on an impromptu trip to the craft store to kill time, I decided I wanted to knit socks. Being an imprompu trip, I had mot previously researched things like what weight or materials make good sock yarn, so I thought I'd just look around to see what the store had.

They had a section with some self-striping yarn that said you could use it to make socks. The yarn wasn't very pretty but it was 3 weight and 100% acrylic so I figured I needed 3 weight yarn and it was okay if it was acrylic. So I looked around at the baby yarns because they were the lightest weight yarns in the store. I thought this color was pretty and the yarn is SO soft and it wasn't 100% acrylic...so I bought 1 skein.

About half way into knitting the sock (the second time) I did some reasearch and realized I made a rather stupid sock yarn selection and was prepared for it to be awful....but now that the first one is done, I LOVE it. It fits nicely without falling down and they are so so so soft. So laugh at me and my rediculous yarn selection if you will, but I've got me one (soon to be two) of these:

And some of this...

Goodbye Hedera

At first this was going to be a post about the wonderful Hedera sock. Shadkitty is a sockophile and she inspired me to try socks again (my first pair have some issues. They make good hiking socks but aren’t very pretty). So after scouring the internet trying to find a beginner-friendly pattern, I happened upon Hedera on Knitty. It’s a Cookie A sock, so it’s beautiful but it didn’t have a confusing lace chart I was going to have to figure out how to read.


So I swatched up and jumped in. After finishing the ribbing (which I hated….mostly because I had decided to try and knit elastic into the cuff which made it both boring and time intensive…yeah, that was dumb) and got to the fun part, it became rather addicting. The pattern was easy and it looked really neat. I’d work on my sock before bed, dream about my sock, and couldn’t wait for lunch time at work so I could work on it some more. But after 2 repeats of the lace pattern, I began to notice a problem….the holes on one side of (what was supposed to be) the symmetrical eyelet were nicely defined and the holes on the other side were very, very tiny. I figured maybe it just needed to be blocked? Hmm. So I kept going.

After 5 repeats of the lace pattern, something looked off. The lace was really pretty but it didn’t look like the picture. (see figures A and B)

So after some research I realized I was making my yarnovers the wrong way….which apparently didn’t matter for half of the holes but did for the others. !#$?!%&!


I didn’t know what to do. If I start doing it properly now, the sock will look funny. I suppose I could always finish this sock and then do the second one wrong on purpose so they match? In the end, I came to the sad realization that I was going to have to frog. So today during lunch I said goodbye to my good friend Hedera and began anew on Hedera II.


This is Gertrude helping me with Hedera II:

Hopefully Gertrude will be better at this knitting thing than me.