It's getting looooong...

But it's not done yet. As you can see the scarf is coming along nicely and will be done shortly thus giving me a finish date weeks before my brother's bday. (YES!!)

What's next? I've had this single of Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash for almost a year and have been unsure what to do with it. But I at last have plan. I'm making this little lovely into a baby hat for my cousin and his wife who are due in November. I like the gender neutral green for a baby, and its machine washable, so perfect! I still need to pick out a pattern though so let me know if you have any suggestions!

FO: Ubdulating Rib Socks!

I seem to be in a sock mood of late so when I finished my last pair I soon cast on another pair, and finished them just yesterday.

This is the Undulating Rib socks in A Piece of Vermont's wool/bamboo sock yarn. Unlike my last pair of socks I love this pattern and yarn combination. The bold rib pattern works well with the muted pinks, purples, and grays in this yarn. I often had to stop knitting just so that I could admire how pretty this is. Can anyone tell I am totally in love with these socks? Because I am. These are easily my favorite pair to date. These are also my fifth pair for myself which means I am only more pairs of socks away from my goal of having enough handknit socks for everyday of the week, awesome!

But alas I must take a break from working towards my goal. For one thing I'm out of sock yarn, but also I have other knitting that needs to get done. Like making this yarn into a scarf for my brother's birthday in October.

I had best get knitting :)

Knitting News: Knitting Up a Poem

Recently, I decided to add a news filter for knitting to my google reader so that in addition to my regular reading I can see what sort of knitting stories are out there. Today I came across a story from the Guardain about the Poetry Society in the UK literally knitting a poem in honor of their 100th year.

This sounds like a pretty awesome and I can't wait to see the results, which will be unveiled in October. Apparently, they're still accepting help too so if anyone is interested you can head over the Poetry Society's website here, (they're taking crochet letters as well) and also check out the Ravelry group for people particpating here.

You can also read the poem that inspired this projet, "How to Knit a Poem" by Gwyneth Lewis, on the Poetry's Society's website here.

Summer Knittin' & a FO

The past few weeks have been incredibly busy. I have two weeks left at my summer job, I've moved, and of course I've been knitting. I even finished these socks as part of the Sock Knitter's Anonymous July Challenge

Pattern: Show Off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell
Yarn: Aisling Yarn in Being There that I got from the CT sheep and wool festival

Overall, I liked the pattern and I'm happy with my socks. I'm still not convinced that this yarn and pattern combo are ideal but I didn't feel like ripping them out and just went with it. I think a yarn with shorter lengths of color would take better advantage of the stranded pattern and provide more visual interest. The long colorway here results in the strands blending in and not popping like they should. I did enjoy the different heel construction though. It was the first time I made socks without doing the conventional heel flap so it good learning experience for me.

In other news the new Fall Twist Collective is out, and I love soo many of the patterns in this issue. I don't even know where I would start if I was going to make one of the sweaters, they'll all beautiful.

FOs: Cape Cod Edition

I had a super relaxing 4th of July weekend with my Robbie and his family (Many thanks again to Doreen for letting us come!). It was sunny for the first time in weeks, AND Robert even humored me by letting me take a picture of him with my current sock project at the beach. The pattern is the Show-Off Stranded Sock by Ann Campbell and I'm using the Aisling yarn I got from the CT Sheep and Wool Festival.

I've been rather productive in the past week. I finished my Froot Loop Socks, and while I didn't finish them on the Cape I did pack them and take a picture from the top deck of the condo. I really liked this pattern. It's so cute and easy. I also liked the yarn a lot. Plymouth Happy Feet is such a great deal, it only cost about $10 for enough yarn to make a pair of socks. The yarn held up great, is nice and squishy, and machine washable! (but I have not yet tired to wash them so who know how they'll hold up)

I did finish one project over the holiday, my very first crochet project! I recently decided to learn crochet and with some help from my mom and her 30 year old learn to crochet book I was gone.

I made the one skein scraf from the "Happy Hooker" and used a skein of Patons Classic Mernio I had sitting around so it was even a stash-busting project, score! I don't think crochet will replace knitting for me, but I feel crochet has its uses so its good that I learned it.

FO: Retro Reduc Shrug!

At last I finished something! I was right, its the retro redux shrug, below is me modeling with my sister's dog Maddie who didn't really feel like being in the picture. (Maddie is a little camera shy.)

I made the smallest size using Berroco Love It. I didn't make any modifications except that the collar isn't as long as it should be since I ran out of yarn. I am very happy with the way that this shrug turned out. The pattern is so easy. The shaping is done just by changing the needle size so its very easy. The most annoying part was picking up all the stiches for the collar. I had to redo it a couple times to get the right number, but once ?I got past that it was a breeze to finish.

I also liked the yarn. Its soft and easy to work with, but it can be a little splitty at times. I'd use it again, but the woman at Saybrook Yarn told me that its being discontinued so I'm not sure I'll be able to unless I stock up soon.

But regardless I am very happy with how this turned out and it'll be perfect for summer- if summer ever actually gets here.

WIPS and Gratuitous Sheep

Yikes, its been so long. Since last time I've had finals and started working full time so things have been busy. I've been knitting but sadly I haven't finished anything. But soon I should have a few FOs to post about like these:

Those are my central park cardi, a retro redux shrug, and the second froot loops sock respectively. I'm betting that the shrug will be the first one done. I only need to knit ribbing of the collar and weave in a few ends. The central park cardi is done with the knitting but we're fighting. I got rather frustrated with the seaming and thus decided it was time for a break. I also figured it could wait since the weather would be getting warm soon, but I may have jinxed New England because its been cool and rainy here recently and the forecast for the next week is more of the same.

Oh well, hopefully it'll get nice again soon. In the mean time here's a random picture of sheep from the CT Sheep and Wool Festival last month (which was a beautiful day)