Finally! & The Harlot Letter

And the Heavens opened up and the Angels sang a chorus of Alleluja! for Husband's Chocolate Cake Socks were finished!

I made it all the way to the toe of the second sock and realized that I'd missed an increase round immediately after the cuff.... [sigh] I didn't even blink [I'm quite proud of myself, you know], I walked over to the swift and just started reskeining the whole bloody thing right then and there.

That was two weeks ago. In the meantime, I've learned how to use the sewing machine my husband gave me for christmas 2 years ago, made a HUGE 6x8 foot banner for an idjit sketch that we had to do at work, run two Lunch& Learn Sessions with very little planning and a semi-hostile audience (it's wonderful inheriting and cleaning up someone else's mess), fertilized my garden, anti-rabbit and deered my garden and managed to start working out again. So, frankly, I think I've done quite well.

Husband loves his socks, I didn't have to rip back anything else once I got rolling for the third time. Any errors in the teeny tiny moss stitch between the cables is going to be our little secret cause I can guarantee that Husband ain't ever gonna know about it. If the sock was too small, (like 11 sts in circumference smaller than the 1st one to small), he'd know it. But little tiny moss stitch? Nope. Or that one of the cable rows is two rows longer than the 17 other cable rows.... nuh-unh.

And. We're. Not. Going. To. Tell. Him.... Are We??. I didn't think so.

Whew. So glad that's over. But they really are beautfiful and I'm embarassed to say that I can't wait to start more socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, even though it's so tiny, the fabric just comes out beautifully!

So here are the details:
Pattern: Sensational Knitted Socks - 3x3 Cable with Moss Stitch
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock - Chocolate Two balls and a stupid arse little bit of a Third for 1 pair of size 12 men's EE feet, but they go half way up his claves.
Needles: US 0, 2 mm
Time to Complete: 6 weeks for three socks with other stuff in between.

On another note, I took the following letter over to the Border's in Oak Brook along with some turnout pics from the Harlot's previous book tours just so's they'd know what they were up against.

Dear Mr. or Ms. Event Coordinator,

I just wanted to drop a friendly note to give you a heads-up about an impending book signing.

Ms. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, author of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting will be coming to your location on April 3rd, 2007.

Fondly known as the Yarn Harlot by her fans, Ms. Pearl-McPhee is a regular blogger (www.yarnharlot.ca) with over 7,000 subscribers as recorded by Bloglines.com. Often, when this author arrives for a signing, the hosting location is unfamiliar with her work and the popularity of same.

I would hate to find you caught in a bind with not enough books to sign or space set aside for Ms. Pearl-McPhee’s fans to attend and hear her speak. Last night, March 22, 2007, the Yarn Harlot spoke in New York City at The Fashion Institute of Technology in an auditorium that holds 750 people. I imagine pictures of the turn out will be up on her blog tomorrow or Saturday.

As an interested supporter and fan, I have included a few pictures of her book signings from last year’s book release in an effort to help you understand the sheer numbers of people that come to her signings.

Please feel free to contact me directly at the number listed below if you have any further questions as I would like to see this be a successful event for both Borders and the Yarn Harlot.

Sincerely,
Jen in Chicago insert real contact info here if you feel like it

The Mom Socks

This pattern was so fun and easy (with the exception of the "Afterthought" heel) that I finished the first sock for my Mom's size 11 feet in 3 days including learning a new technique! (In case you're unfamiliar with the speed of my knitting, that is amazing; it's like Flying the Concord from here to Europe on my needles).

Pattern: Chevron pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks (as usual).
Yarn: STR Chanticleer Mediumweight
Needles: Two Addi-Turbo circs US size 1
Start to finish: Two weeks (I was dreading that second heel so I put them down for a week when I got to the point where I had to add it.)

Thoughts on these socks: Next time I'm going to try Alyssa's suggestion and try a Peasant Heel, cause I got to the heel part and, while it was an interesting experience, the whole thing was too fiddly. The heel is constructed using a provisional cast on worked and then divided in half on two needles (just like for a top down sock cuff). From there, you decrease to the heel "point" and kitchener both around the heel and across the heel point. At one point, I had 4 circulars hanging from my work and then had to Kitchener the heel to the on hold stitches or some such business. What a pain. Not doing that again. Realistically, it was only about an hour of focused attention, but still

Regardless, the rest of the sock was SO FAST that I made them a little too long! BTW, STR medium weight can easliy cover a pair of large feet. I tried the socks on my husband as a sample to make sure that they would fit my mom (is that wrong?) I guess that's why they were a little long, but then, if you look at the pics, they're not terribly long, just a little loose in the toes (unless Mumsie was being nice and did some magic pinning on the heels like they do with jackets on mannequins....

Now if I could just finish a sweater that fit for me..... (more on that later)

Chocolate Cake Socks

I'm knitting a new pair of socks for hubbo. You see the last pair (a.k.a. the first pair) of socks I knit for him were too big by about a mile. Also, he's used to Costco cotton socks that squeeze the life out of your toes there's so much elastic in them.

So, shortly after the new year, in a fit of UFO work, I added a significant amount of elastic to the cuffs. They stayed up while we were out to dinner with some friends, but when he put them on the next day, they promptl slumped around his ankles.

Now, while I tried to explain to him the physics of handmade socks and how they don't stay up forever, they stretch while you wear them, they're bigger cause they're made specifically for his feet and what have you, the subtleties were lost on Darling Hub.

So, I'm knitting him a new pair of socks that will F.I.T.. They will fit because
1.) I'm a little more experienced
2.) I don't have to hide them from him while I finish the toes because they're not a X-mas present
3.) I can regularly take his foot hostage while he watches TV and slide the in-progress sock over his big gunboats just to check my progress. (BTW, why doesn't anyone in my family have small feet?)

I call them the Chocolate Cake Socks because the color of the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock I'm using looks just like perfect chocolate cake. You know how the little bubbles in the crumb are sometimes light and sometimes dark, but always look yummy.... yeah, that's it. Actually, the little wound balls look like little chocolate cupcakes to me but you're just going to have to take my word on that one...

I'm using the Cable with Seed Stitch from Sensational Knitted Socks, of course. I let hubby pick from the patterns and choose the yarn color. He calls this red, but we know it's really brown.

Finally, while I was taking a few shots in the brief afternoon light, the sock had a near brush with death... do you SEE the talons on that beast? They're like the claws of a Velociraptor!! I had to swoop in and save the sock from certain death!

OK, yeah, Mr. Whiskers needs his claws trimmed.

Doesn't it look like chocolate cake????