The Good. The Bad. The Ugly

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Rockin' Sock Club
July package: Socks That Rock light weight in colorway Goody Goody

The extra sweetness of this new yarn is having TWO patterns to come with it. Oh where do I begin??? Yummy. I really wouldn't be to interested in this colorway as it's a little pastel for my pale feet;) But that is the great thing about clubs... trying something new.

Some Bad Ass flowers popped up in my garden the other day.... click to make it larger. Love to put these as my wallpaper.



The ugly part has to do with the current state of Cleopatra's Stockings.



They are turning out just fine. The ugly part is having to put the gusset increases onto stitch holders in order to access them while knitting the slip stitch heel and thus decreasing the gusset stitches. Knitting two socks on two circ's has it's ugly side... and that is it.

Today is Better.... Maybe.

The plain and simple truth is that working in the advertising community can be stress-full, frustrating, pain-in-the-arse, yet rewarding, challenging and unpredictable. That is why I love it so much. Not one day is the same, each challenge brings on new insights and outcomes.

After having an interesting conversation with my SnB buddy last night about season 1 of Mad Men... It started me thinking. I really should be keeping a journal. Some of the stories I could tell would make for a great plot.

Obviously it's not 1960 anymore, but there are similar situation that arise and make you wonder. I don't think my snippets of adventures would put me in Emmy Award winning categories, but would be great to look back on years from now and snicker.

In Knitting News:

I've been concentrating on my Rockin' Sock Club package from May. Since I joined Summer of Socks, feel I should try to catch up a bit.



These are the Cleopatra Stockings so far done as the instructions have asked. Not a difficult pattern as of yet. The toe is a provisional cast-on which I'm very familiar with. I had first started doing my toe-up socks that way but tossed that away after discovering Magic Cast-on.

The pattern is interesting enough that I've memorized it and not bored yet. I'm currently starting on my increases for the gusset which is a different way I do my heels too. Kind of excited to be doing something different.

The Day I Went Postal

Can you tell by the title that I'm having one of those days, yes?

Thank. God. For Snb.

Navajo Plying

When I first started spinning I had started with the idea of producing sock yarn. I've gotten fairly good at keeping my singles consistent, although some rough spots on the plying have always hung me up.

I believe I over twist on both the singles and on plying. I'm working on it, but it's hard to pull back because I feel I might pull back to far and I don't care for the look of under-plied yarn.

Then I found this gorgeous roving that brought back my Spinning Mojo.



Do you remember the Redwood Forest BFL I picked up a while back. Well, I turned it into this:



It is a dream to spin with. The only issue that was pressuring me was the plying. I wanted the colors to come out right... kinda the way you see it now. Then I checked my single bobbin and plied a small strip onto its self. It's a good way of making sure your consistent.

My results were way to thin. I've been trying for so long to accomplish fingering weight yarn that now it's hard to go in reverse. sigh.

Then I decided to look into a 3-ply. That could bulk it up but I was getting nervous as I hadn't done that before. I wasn't sure if I could even do a test sample before hand. This brought me down some serious paths towards Navajo plying.

I had heard about it. The Yarn Harlot has posted about it before and why the hell should I not try something new!

The tutorials out there on the Internet are a bit weak and if I had the setup to do video I would. The best out there is by woman named Rexenne who posted a You Tube Video. What I like most about this video is the slow motion sections. Sometimes her hand goes out of view, but more or less it's enough to get you going.

The best thing about Navajo plying? you don't get the barber pole effect.



I still feel like I'm over plying but this turned out so good that I can't wait to finish the rest.

Recovering from Fiber Fumes

I can't even think or comprehend what all happened on Saturday at the
Midwest Fiber & Folk Art Fair. All I remember is waking up at the butt crack of dawn and heading to Crystal lake with A:-). Check out her blog for more fine details as all I can muster up is some random bits.

First off I was trying to be really good and watch how much I spent. Miss Babs booth...oh boy did they have good stuff!



Two 4oz BFL in Harvest colorway and of course I couldn't pass up the Yummy sock yarn in Rock Wall colorway.



Besides for rain (which we can't control) the only thing that was irritating was the bad folk songs being song at ear piercing levels.

They sell more roving / spinning stuff at this fiber festival then at Stitches.

I'm kinda glad that I didn't take the kids. They had face painting, spiral art, alpacas to see and angora bunnies to touch. Not much in the way of "kids stuff".

I did like that the Midwest Fiber festival is small enough to meet people and not get too lost in the crowd. Ran into a bunch of familiar faces: Becca & Miss M, Dreamsweaver, Old bean. Along with A:-)'s tag-a-long group: Linda, Jamie and Rachael! I love how everyone was able to wonder around and yet not loose anyone.

Wish I would have brought my wheel because after repeating the show a second round we tagged up with Jar Lady and Sheri from the Loopy Ewe for a little down time to knitting and spinning.



I worked on my second Windmill Beret and cast-on with no issues. Hurray!