Girl on the Rocks

Help a grad student June 26, 2005

Filed under: non-knitting related — karrie @ 3:25 pm

Socking away in Idaho June 25, 2005

Filed under: Karrie's Current Projects, Socks — karrie @ 5:19 pm

It’s weird, but I was just in Idaho again, and rather unexpectedly. I went to help my roommate collect some more rocks for her thesis. Man, it was hot there. Swinging a hammer and climbing precarious cliffs is so much more taxing when it is 90 degrees.

But on to the knitting… i have made great progress on my blauband maxiringel socks. everything but the heel is finished on sock #1, and I just made it past the reinforced toe part of sock #2. I am still getting used to the idea of afterthought heels. Every time I cast off at the top of the sock i get this feeling that I am all finished, and I start to put the sock on my foot. Then i realize that they have no heel and aren’t done yet and it is a bit of a let down. But overall, I prefer toe-up socks to top-down socks just because i think it is easier to try them on as you go when you start at the toe.

i also wanted to point out a link that tina brought to my attention in the comments on my last post. In response to my pleas for koigu pattern suggestions, she pointed me to this link that is a whole page of patterns for 2 skeins of koigu! perfect!

Gifted June 22, 2005

Filed under: Complete Disasters — karrie @ 9:47 am

I got a gift my from my secret
pal!

Chocolate and Koigu. aaahhhh….
perfect. What do you think I should make wiith it? Socks? It really seems too
nice to use for socks.. Thanks secret pal! And tell your dad I said thanks
too

Last night was cheryl’s
last night at the Mel-O-Dee. She will be missed. Check out this picture - she
doesn’t look sad to be moving to
Alaska!

Â

You would think June 15, 2005

Filed under: Karrie's Current Projects, Socks — karrie @ 2:34 pm

It would seem to me that since i own a cellphone, am a geologist (and am always surrounded by geologists), and live 23 feet above sea level that someone would call me to let me know that i am about to die in a tsunami. but no. No one that I knew even called me to tell me that there was a local tsunami warning for the bay area - however brief it was. Don’t get me wrong, If i have to go, I would prefer it be in a geologic event. I’ll take volcano, earthquake and tsunami over car accident or cancer any day. But i just want to have a second to know that is what is going to happen.

On the knitting front, I am progressing nicely on the blauband maxiringel socks. in fact, right now i am love with them. I reinforced the toe, but you can’t even tell because the reinforcing thread matches!! I just can’t get enough of that. Speaking of socks (b i’m looking on your direction), there is a new online store that specializes in sock yarns, The Simply Sock Yarn Company. They are having a Grand opening Contest that has prizes so go check them out. After submitting my entry I got a personal response to my suggestions - that is so nice.

Socks are finished June 13, 2005

Filed under: Karrie's Current Projects, Socks — karrie @ 2:13 pm

I finished the black and white striped socks. I
wasn’t able to find a lot of online (free) references to afterthought heel
instructions, so I made it up myself. The idea is that you knit some waste yarn
into the sock where you want the heel to be (i used half of the total number of
stitches). I discovered that the best place in the striping pattern to insert
the heel and keep the striping is half-way through a stripe (a gray one in the
picture below). Then after the rest of the sock is done take out the waste
yarn, pick up the live stitches and make the heel. I tried to match up the yarn
to half-way through the same color stripe so the pattern would continue in the
heel. I also picked up a stitch on either end of the heel stitches so there
wouldn’t be little hole there. Then all i did was decrease 4 stitches every
other row. Since i was knitting on two circular needles, i knit two together at
the beginning and end of each needle. It is not a very fancy decrease, but it
seemed to work well. I attempted a kitchener stitch to sew up the heel, but it
ain’t too pretty so there will be no close-ups of
that.