Japanese Socks: A new adventure

Greetings,

I know it has been almost 6 months since my last post but they went by so fast.  Working 12 hours shifts has been an adjustment to say the least.  I am currently working a night shift and loving it (6 pm-6 am).  I never thought I would like nights but I really do.  I can see this being beneficial for my schooling future.  However, while I finish training I am delighted to get some knitting in.  I found this amazing book on Amazon about Japanese knitting techniques.  There are 30 patterns and I plan on blogging their progress here.

Most of these socks will end up going to Jessie bc she is my muse for this book however I may keep some for myself.  I love the colorway for this first pair of socks and even though it is Red Heart there is no acrylic in it!!!

The socks I am starting with are called Konnichiwa which is "good day" in Japanese.  This sock starts with a somewhat unique pattern (at least for me) for the ribbing on the cuff. It is still a combination of knitting and purling but they overlap in parts.  Its pretty to look at (as you can see in the pic) but I'm not completely sure about how stretchy it is.  It could just be that I cast on a little tight, but  it still fits up my forearm so we should be good.  The main pattern consists of what the author is calling a right/left twist slip.  It will be interesting to learn the nuances of this stitch.

Modifications
I want to use these posts to also document my modifications so I don't have to keep guessing on the second sock as to what I did on the first one :-).  I will probably switch to two socks at a time at some point when I can buy new needles.  So far I am using size 2 needles and I cast on 60 stitches as opposed to the size 6 and 40 stitches it calls for.  I am not always good at doing my own mods so I especially for this one I am relying on Airynia from Ravelry to help me.

On a side note, I have always knit my socks with size 2 needles.  No matter what the pattern I have been able to make that work.  I don't know if that is normal for everyone to use the same size, but I don't know what I would do if I had to use different sizes.  I guess I need to go back through my sock history and see if I made a lot of mods to numbers of stitches to make the pattern work.  Hmm.....

Well, that is all I have to say for now so I am signing off.  Below is the pic of the cuff (I need to knit 5 more rows before I start the main pattern.)

Eileen
Purling Kitty

Socks, Clapotis, and Cooking

Well it has been a rather busy last couple of weeks.  I had to order more yarn because I ran out while making Jessie's socks. :-(  The yarn came quick and I bought a little extra because I like it so much and want to make something for myself with it.  The only downside is that my yarn ball winder is no where to be found.  I went to my storage unit and tore it apart.  I found a lot of my knitting supplies which made me happy but still no winder.  I guess I am going to have to suck it up and go to a knitting store and pay for them to wind it for me.  I want to get her socks to her before its too hot to wear them.

One of the things I found during my search was a package of gold yarn that Jessie gave me for my 29th birthday.  I had not decided what I was going to use it for earlier, so it's been sitting safely and patiently waiting for me to become inspired.  I have been using knitting to help keep me distracted while I wait for my new job to formulate and while I deal with my lost friendship.  Therefore, when I happened upon my yarn this time I jumped onto Ravelry and searched.  I finally came upon the Clapotis, which is actually from Knitty.com.  I think it is really beautiful and decided it would look great with this yarn.  The yarn is Crystal Palace Yarns Creme.  It is 4.5-5 sts per inch and recommends US 8-9 size needles.  It is knitting up very nicely.  There are a few tangles within the ball, but nothing major or super bothersome.  I am getting close to the end of the main repeat section.  For a few days, I thought I would never finish but now I only have 4 more repeats to do before the decrease.  So excited!!!  I snapped an obviously unblocked picture of my progress.  I really like the color and am super excited to be done so I can use it.  It can be used as a scarf or a shawl and I have always wanted something like this.  Len is not a big fan of the look of larger scarves so he has always been against me buying one, but he can't stop me from making one! :-)

Last night was the Super Bowl.  I used that as an excuse to make two different recipes.  Both from Plain Chicken.  I have to give a shout out to Sheri Woolridge for turning me onto this sight.  At first  I was nervous about using any of the recipes because most of the savory ones seemed to be spicy.  However, I decided to take a chance and make the Slow Cooker Cream Cheese Chicken Chili.  It was so simple!  I changed the rotel to a can of crushed tomatoes with garlic and left out the chili powder and cumin, mainly because I am a heat wuss.  I may try it with a little of those two spices in the next go round just to see how it changes the flavor. Unfortunately, I cooked it on high rather than low because I wasn't paying attention and there was no liquid left when it was time to serve, so it was more like the filling for enchiladas (as Len said) than a soup.  It was still very good and there was none leftover which is always a good thing.  I also decided to make the Nutella S'mores Pulls for desert.  I had a hard time putting the nutella between the cuts.  However, I did just read the directions for one of her other pull breads and it says to cut one way spread the stuff and then cut the other way and spread the stuff. I wonder if that would make it any easier.  I will have to try it and find out.  The only alteration I made is that I had a package of regular sized marshmallows so I just cut those into pieces and used them instead of buying more.  This was a huge hit and is definitely something I want to make again very soon!

In other news, I am optimistic that I will have some real information to share about a job very soon.  I really hope it works out.  I am very bored sitting in my house all day every day.  Also, I am doing better at handling the loss of my friendship (see this post).  I still have my days of setbacks but I am feeling much healthier and actually see some light in this very dark tunnel (even though I am still shocked that this tunnel exists).  I have to say thanks to my friends Jessie, Omar, and Sheri who have stood by me and helped me maneuver through this nasty maze.  I am closer to the exit because of your love and support.  Thanks for validating that I am a person who deserves only goodness and light in my life and that the dark cobwebs shrouding me are not of my own fault.  Your words of encouragement are the best brooms a girl could ask for.  I continue to fight my insecurities so that I may one day see the me you see when I look in my mirror and can accept that this person is NOT WORTHY of me!

Well, that is enough sappiness for one day.  My Clapotis is calling me.

Eileen
Purlingkitty

Last Minute Christmas Knitting

So I am sitting here trying to knit some last minute dishcloths.  I am making a set of four each for two girls who bought me a case of Watermelon bubble gum. There are 5 pieces in each pack with a total of 18 packs in the case so I have lots of chewing to do.  I was so surprised and pleased with the gift, that I wanted to do something special for them.  For me, nothing is better than something hand knit.  The only downside is that it can be pricey which at the moment is a big issue for me.  Fortunately, I have a surplus of cotton yarn so that made the idea of dishcloths an easy one to make.  I found a free pattern of four on Ravelry.  I am knitting one group in a peach palate and one in a blue palate.  Otherwise they are identical so they don't fight over them.  The first three are awesome and knit up really well.  The fourth is a dewdrop pattern that just looks dreadful so I frogged that one and am getting ready to search for a final one to add.  I just have to try to find one that is about the same size so they all go together.

In other news, my brother is in town.  That isn't always the best news, but so far things are going pretty smoothly.  Last night we went to dinner at La Parilla Suiza then went to check out the lights at Winterhaven.  After words we got dessert at Pastiche and just spent some time telling jokes and relaxing.  Something is different about my brother, which I am liking, but I still can't figure out exactly what it is.  Tomorrow is going to be a day at home with a HoneyBaked Ham (I scrimped and saved for this luxury LOL) and then Wednesday my family will get together for an evening of cookies and hot chocolate.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and hopefully I can post again before the New Year.

Eileen
Purlingkitty

I am finally back

Hello to anyone who may still read this blog.  I know I have been gone for over 2 years, but I had good reason.  First, I decided to go back to school.  I just finished my last class on Wednesday and now have my associates degree in Psychology!!!  I am taking next semester off and hope to start at the University of Arizona in the fall.  Also, as my last post alluded, I have had some rather interesting health issues.  I seem to have most of them under control now.  Plus I had gotten a promotion at work so I was in training and was working an insane amount of hours.  Unfortunately, my hard work at American was for naught.  They decided to close our office and I got laid off in August.  All of this was a time suck and left me with zero time to knit and zero time to blog.

Well, I have missed both blogging and knitting so I have decided that I need to make time for the things in my life that make me happy.  The only thing I have attempted to knit in the past 2 years was my first Fair Isle project which was socks for my astronomy professor.  His name is Dr. Croft.  He is the most amazing person and a phenomenal teacher.  The socks have the moon (in phases) and sun and stars on them.  Here is the Ravelry link http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sun--moon-socks    They are super awesome.  The only problem is my first sock is way too tight.  I cant even get my hand from the cuff down to the heel.  This means that I will have to unravel the entire sock and make it again.  But I have periodically been working on the second sock (10 rows or so every six months LOL) and it seems to be much better. Currently I am in the process of getting all the knots out of my yarn.  I've been doing that for 2.5 days now, but I am almost done. I will post pics shortly.  Once I get the mess cleaned up I am going to knit for my best friend because she has been such a motivation and inspiration to me.  Love you Jessie!!

This blog is still going to be mostly about knitting but will also touch on issues in my life as they come up.  I am really glad to be back in the swing of things and hope to be able to write at least once a week. Thanks for reading this and stay tuned for 2013.  It is going to be an interesting year for sure!

Eileen aka Purlingkitty