How is it the 17th already? I have not finished any of my November projects and Thanksgiving is just around the corner? Why am I lagging? Well...
First I have been playing way too much Aion. This is an on-line game. I have 2 "toons" or characters that I play in this game. One is a "cleric" or healer. The other is a "ranger" or bowman. I get on with my friends from, well, all over the world, and we basically fight monsters and each other. PvE (player versus everything) and PvP (Player versus Player). I cannot express how much fun this is. The photo of "me" on this blog right now is my cleric.
One of the many fun things about Aion is that you get to design the look of your toon. You can choose from many preset faces, hair styles, etc, but you can customize any and all of them. Just this part is so much fun! ok, I know I am now exposed as a gaming geek, but oh well, I guess I am.
So, what else has caused me to fall behind in my knitting goals?
Knitting Knews
Clue 3 came out for the Movember Mystery Sock by Deb Barnhill. This clue included the heel flaps and the heel turns. Rather than just a plain s1k1 heel flap, an "eye of partridge" heel flap, or some designed flap, Deb had us do somewhat of a garter stitch heel. So we are still slipping every other stitch on the WS for extra strength, but knitting instead of purling in between the stitches. This is not an obviously different looking heel, but a subtle difference that came out very nice, I think. However, the instructions called for slipping both the first and last stitch on the WS (because there are an uneven number of stitches in the heel flap). I am so used to slipping the first stitch of each row on a heel flap, that I slipped the last stitch of the WS rows AND the first stitch of the RS rows for about 6 repeats. Of course this made one side of the heel flap about 1 stitch long, and the other side 6 stitches long... I had to carefully knit back TWO TIMES. But I finally got it right, and this is what the socks look like now:
I also knit a bit more on the last sleeve of my Mystery Sweater by Christiane Burkhard that I am knitting for the Sharing Our Gifts Across America Group on Ravelry. But I have no photo of this sleeve.
I finished the gussets on my Mr. Pitt's Socks by Kaitlyn Wong, but have decided that for the foot, I am going to make up my own pattern. Well, not really make up, but use a more interesting ribbing pattern. These socks need to be super stretchy to fit very easily on M's feet. He has a form of ALS, and is having trouble dressing himself as his hands have atrophied quite a bit. His kids are helping put his socks on, and need super stretchy socks that will go over his feet easily. The legs of this pattern have really fit the bill here. The simple k3p1 ribbing is nice and stretchy, but a bit boring. Since the feet part doesn't have to fit over the heels, I am going to add something to make them a bit more interesting, but hopefully not take away any stretch.
I just got a book of stitch patterns: The Knitting Stitch Bible by Maria Parry-Jones.
I think I will do some type of moss stitch every other rib. That should still look masculine, but keep the stretch.
GREAT NEWS! The yarn I won from the September Sockdown Challenge in the Sock Knitters Anonymous (SKA) group in Ravelry came! I won 1 skein of yarn from Lisa Souza Yarns and I chose this really cool hand painted yarn named Mombasa. It is this awesome gold and brown, that when knitted up should look like a leopard or lion.
Last update:
I bought my yarn for the Advent Scarf. I decided on this gorgeous "red wine" Alpaca Lace from Cascade Yarns.
I still need to choose and buy some beads. I have been looking online, but I think that I want to see the beads and how they go with the yarn. We have a great bead shop in downtown Bellevue, Beads and Beyond. I think this weekend, when I have a car, I will stop by with my new gorgeous yarn and choose some beads. The great ladies who work there will be able to help me choose the correct size and I hope the right crochet hook.
Back to my socks and sweater!
C. A. Losi
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