Purple Princess Knits

I have been busy, busy, busy. I am over obligated at the moment and am just taking things one day at a time in order to fulfill all of my current obligations. I will not over schedule myself ever again! I am completely overwhelmed and on auto pilot this week.

I am training a new employee, new to even the Oil and Gas Industry so that means in depth training at my full time more than 40 hour a week job. With the training time I give, there is no time get my work done so I have been working through lunch hour. I then stay late on Thursday, the one night a week I am not running off to to anything else. I miss my lunch knitting group. I am teaching a knitting class on Tuesday's, a different knitting class on Saturday's, which is great, I love to help people with their knitting, however we all know the 2 hour knitting class is not just 2 hours. There's travel time and people time before and after class. I bowl on Wednesdays. I am not thrilled about this but it is the one thing a week I do with DH. I also have to work in getting my allergy shots on Mondays and Fridays. Then, my weekends are scheduled to do style seminars, see grand kids, try to have knitting time, grocery shopping, organizing time, cleaning the house time, pay bill time and right now I feel all used up. I have not had a "day" to myself in a while.

I am looking forward to the long weekend coming up. I have Friday and Monday off, from my full time job anyway. I am still working at Knit Knack on Friday. Oh yea, I am teaching a class on Saturday but the rest of the time I want to just stay home, sleep a lot, clean and organize my house. I am also looking forward to a trip to Florida in mid September (but I have to work to get ready) and I will go to a knitting retreat at the end of October. Around then my teaching obligations will be completing and after that I will only teach one class at a time, but not again until January or after so I can have some downtime to selfishly knit for me. No one gets knitting from me this Christmas! Well, maybe some blankets for the kids but that's it!

Okay enough ranting and raving. I feel better already.

Look what came in the mail day before yesterday. Something to cheer me up that's for sure!


You got it the new Socks That Rock club package. I love the colors, I even think the pattern is very cute. You knit the lace cuff first and then pick up stitches and knit the foot.

Here is some Knit Knack people news!

Kay is working on the Noro Shrug. I love the colors. I know it looks like a big long rectangle now but just wait, it is really a cute shrug when put together.

Christie is making good progress on her beaded shawl. Pretty awesome for her first lace project and first knitting with beads project. I can't wait to see this one all finished.

Claudia finsihed her beaded shawl. Beautifully done, I might add.

Then I could not get a good picture of her tattoo but check this out for now. I really like it and want one.

Interesting news is, DH who hates tattoos said he could draw me a better one. I think that means I can get one if he draws it for me. What do you think??

I had lunch last Thursday with my friend Kathy. It was fun, once we hooked up. I need to make a note to always carry my phone with me when I make plans with Kathy. Something always happens, we get our wires crossed and end up waiting for each other on different street corners! We finally hooked up, after I went back to the office to grab my phone!

Anyway, we did not get much knitting done, Kathy showed me her acquisitions from Talbots and I showed her my Lady Eleanor.

My Lady Eleanor looked liked this before lunch.


Then based on Kathy's advice, we ripped. After lunch it looked like this.



Now it looks like this.

Do you see the difference. The blob of green in the middle is gone.

I had decided to knit this totally random, however the Noro came out of the skein. Yes, that is what I was going to do but it's Noro and one cannot really be totally random with self striping Noro, you know, the Noro that is never wound in the right order and the Noro where the colors never start in the same place. Yes, that Noro. That kind of random thinking ended up with me having a blob of green right in the middle of My Lady Eleanor. I have since been shown the light and changed my ways. The blob of green in the before picture bothered me at the time it happened, but I left it thinking it will be okay in the big scheme of things. Then, of course Kathy so very tactfully pointed out the blob of green and ever so innocently made the comment, "if it was mine, I would rip it" Of course at that moment, I knew what had to be done. The light came on and I started ripping it right then and there, with Kathy's help, of course. Thank you Kathy. (I think!)

I know some people wouldn't like ripping that much but when you spend a lot of money and put a lot of time into your knitting you should fix things that bother you. Of course if I would have fixed it the first time it bothered me way back when the blob of green first appeared, I would not have ripped so much. Another great knitting lesson learned.

So see the new poll and place your votes. Do you like Lady Eleanor before my lunch with a friend or after?

Also in reponse to the comment left by my precious little Dina here, yes Little Princess loves the Lady Eleanor and yes it is a lovely color for her ......

But this Lady Eleanor is going to be for Purple Princess's Grandma! It's going to be hard to get the Little Princess to give this one up but if she does then just maybe the Little Princess will be able to get her own Lady Eleanor made with the leftovers!

Look what I received from my Sockapalooza Four pal ....

Steph

It's a most wonderful package that includes a pair of my very own Monkey socks. I LOVE them, I love the color, I love the pattern and best of all they fit perfectly. I also received a skein of Trekking XXL in another beautiful color and the book Knitting Under the Influence with a very nice note. I love to read so the book is great, I started it this morning and so far so good. I think I might make me another pair of Monkey's with the yarn. The socks are really cute and the pattern looks fun. I wear my blue jeans a lot so the socks and the yarn both are great colors to wear with jeans.

Thank you so very much Steph. Don't pay attention to my wonky looking feet, (trust me it is my feet) but I want to show you just how well these socks fit. You did such a wonderful job. Thank you, thank you. They are just perfect.






What a wonderful experience I had with the Sockapalooza Four, I am very pleased. In addition, these are the first items that anyone has ever knit for me so they are very special socks and I will treasure them always, I cannot thank you enough, Steph. I loved getting this package.

I am at it again. I won't say why really except to mention my hip is out, my back is hurting and I haven't been feeling well, it hurts to walk so here I sit with heating pads on my back and ice on my hip. I get bored.

I think this template has more zip. Okay, a lot of zip. Maybe too much zip but I didn't really like not being able to see all of the title on the other template and it was slightly bland for my taste.

Up next is some real gnarly knitting content, so reader BEWARE.

While cruising away, knitting my Lady Eleanor from the book Scarf Style with the Tonalita yarn by Trendsetter, someting happened and I snapped. I started with a just bit cussing and then I progressed to some real live yarn bashing. After that things got sort of out of control and finally more than 1/2 of a skein of a tangled mess got thrown in the garbage. After that, I took the whole thing back into the store. I needed to cut my losses and move on and so I exchanged the remaining balls (10) for a more well behaved yarn that I could make the Lady Eleanor with. In that one skein of yarn, there were more than 7 knots ( I was not quite to 1/2) and in one section the yarn just kept tearing apart. That was it and I had enough. No more, it's gone , life goes on, S**t happens. The Tonalita is gone and I am now once again a calm, happy knitter, I am fine and I have moved on.

I am allergic to Noro Silk Garden. Last time I used it my hands broke out in a terrible rash that only recently healed. I do okay with Noro Kureyon so I bought this ... 15 skeins to be exact.


It is color 164. Yea that means a lot, huh. It has some teal, green brown, tan and will make a very pretty Lady Eleanor Shawl. I am happy now. I might have called this color Autumn Frost. They are warm rich colors with just a touch of a cool teal blue.

Lady Eleanor is to be, after all.

Lucky me, when this one is finished!

Sometimes I get bored and just like to change up the look of my blog and play around with the templates and colors. My knowledge of this stuff is so very limited and I keep trying to figure it all out. I want to taking a web design class just because I think it would be fun and I would enjoy learning more about it. On the other hand it would take away from my knitting time so for now I found this template by Laughing Lion Design and just changed the font colors a bit. Be sure to put your vote in and tell me what you think.

I am patiently waiting for word that my Sockapalooza Four pal received her socks and I still have my fingers crossed that she likes them and that they will fit.

In addition, I am still waiting to receive my socks from my sock pal and right now I am starting to get pretty excited. I have not participated in any kind of knitting exchange before and now I am really looking forward to seeing what my sock pal cooked up for me. I know she has been working on them and they may get mailed out today. She was thoughtful enough to let me know the status of her gift for me. She is Mrs. Myterioso, somebody, somewhere. I found her creativity for setting up an e-mail account like that so absolutely brilliant that I can be sure my socks will be wonderful. No one has ever knitted me anything before so my anticipation and excitement is growing daily. Only another knitter can really know what goes into knitting for someone else, how much thought and effort is involved so from one knitter to another, I know I will truly appreciate my socks.

Remember this???

The Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style that I started with this yarn ...

Tonalita by Trendsetter?

Well good, then stay tuned for more knit news; I have much stash enhancement, project news, project dumps, organizational and knitting news to tell you about later. I am just not feeling well at the moment, so hopefully I will be up to show and tell tomorrow.

I will be teaching a class at Knit Knack on the "Beaded Eyelet, A Shapely Shawlette" designed by Judy Pascale. I want to make another beaded shawl along with the class. The first one I made was with some turquoise beads and Koigu, dyed red by Interlacements. I made this in a class at String given by my friend Kathy. It turned out really great and I love it. I will show you later.

I have some white opalescent beads and this yarn ....

The yarn was dyed by my friend Mary Kay (Red Rocks Fiber Works) and the color is called He's a Pirate, love the yarn, love the name of it, love the beads, so I started the shawl.

I like the white beads for this yarn, they brighten up the yarn and it will be a casual, southwestern looking shawl that I can wear with jeans. I like southwestern colors and styles, so perfect!

Until, I remembered I had this yarn ....

I like pink too! This yarn was also dyed by Mary Kay. She made this color pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness.


Oooooooh ..... this pink may look good with the white beads.

Yes it does.


But which one do I like better???? The white beads get a bit lost in the color of the pinks and whites in the yarn, but it could be a dressier look in addition to wearing it with a pair of jeans.

I really can't decide which one I like better. I like them both.

DH likes the "He's a Pirate" with the white beads, because of the color and the way the beads show up better. My friend Carol likes the pink because it is "dressier."

After all this, I decided to go ahead with the "He's a Pirate" yarn. I may try the pink yarn with some silver beads and see if that looks good or I may make something else with the pink. who knows, tomorrow I may change my mind again and just knit them both up!

My Sockapalooza socks are complete, they have been washed with some nice Citrus Soak and are drying at this moment while I am preparing a little package of goodies to send with them. A nice little package will go in the mail tomorrow morning.

I am calling them "Lunasea Waves". I will explain why after my sock pal receives them. I would so give away who my sock pal is if I spill my guts now!

Here is a couple of close up shots of the pattern. I really enjoyed knitting these and plan to make me some socks using this pattern.


The other fine details are....

Yarn - Socks that Rock
Color - Lunasea
Pattern - A mix of several different techniques so the socks themselves are quite unique, I used a toe up Turkish Cast on, the Stanton 196 stitch out of the book More Sensational Socks a gusset heel about an inch of 2 x 2 ribbing and a fancy new bind off.
Needles - I used a US 1 for the foot and heel and then switched to a US 2 half-way up the gusset. Bind off - Found on Grumperina goes to Yarn Shops and Home Depot.

I used this pattern because it gives a bit and because it looks wavy (you will find out why I picked the "waves" look for my sock pal, later.) I made a slightly longer heel flap and changed needle sizes to accommodate a wider foot with wider ankles. It seemed that my pal was concerned about wider and swollen ankles.

I tried several different bind offs that I have in my collection but none were good enough for these socks and I wasn't happy so I searched all my books and the Internet. I found a very nice bind off here and was quite pleased with the results. With Grumperina's permission I am re posting the directions. this is the best bind off ever for a toe up sock and I will be using this one for all my toe up socks! Thank you Kathy.

Right now my fingers are crossed while I wait for them to dry in order to mail them and then I will wait to hear if they fit and if my pal likes them.

Just for fun you can check out other sockapalooza socks here.

Do you ever feel like that? Right now I do. You know it's like running a marathon only not going anywhere, just running in place. I am getting a great workout but the scenery stays the same and I can't seem to get any closer to the finish line. I still have 16 rows plus 1" of ribbing to go on the second sock. Mmmm... sounds just the same as yesterday and I have been knitting on them, a lot! Why is this? You so innocently ask.

Well I did finish the first sock for my sockapalooza pal in record time but the second sock seems to be a bit of a stubborn bugger. The saga starts with me dropping a stitch. I tinked back a few rows to get it picked up. I have yarn overs and k2tog's to deal with so I just took it back and did it over. Okay cool no problem. I knitted some more. Then, I didn't like the way a particular stitch looked so I took it back again. This is starting to get old. I knitted some more. Then I didn't like the way the yarn was pooling different than the other sock (which means my tension is off) so I checked it out with the first sock and yes, my assumption was correct my tension was a bit looser for a short while, so I took it down to just above the ankle to get it right. After all, the Purple Princess is a very picky knitter especially when it is for someone else. Picky to my own detriment, possibly? ..... NO, hear me now sock, I am your boss sock and I will win!

Today is the is the day I will not only finish these socks at any cost, but I will finish them perfectly. I will do whatever it takes. It is my Friday so if I have to stay up all night to get the sock right and finished, that is what I will do. I want my sock pal to like them.

According to Allison, these socks must be mailed out between August 1st and August 7th, they should arrive on August 8th, 9th or 10th. Today is August 2nd. I have my timing down, DH works for the US Postal Service and says it is 3 days to where they are going so if I mail them on the 4th they should arrive exactly on time. So my agenda is finish today, wash today, they will be dry the next day and away they go! Whew!

Oh the Lunasea of it all. Here is a sneak peak at the finished sock.

At least this week it was Lollicup night. There were the usual cast of characters (minus a few and plus a couple) mulling about, knitting, problem solving and what not.

We knitters are really good at solving the world's problems great or small like those at the back table, Christie, Cathy and Carol who are hard at work trying to solve a sizing problem with Christie's "Fifi." Pam, Nichole, Claudia and Nachaele's legs are all comfortable and enjoying themselves. Btw, Nice legs Nachaele.

I am glad Jeannine decided to join us after all, she came by Knit Knack one day and we invited her to the Arvada Knit group but you know she was a bit undecided since we are such a rowdy bunch. Next to my new friend Jeanine is Terrie, back from vacation and knitting up a storm.

Madison finished her felted bag. It looks great, nice job Maddie. While there she also finished knitting her Hedgehog. I hope we get so see that little stuffed cutie next week.

Claudia finished her Jawbreaker. It turned out awesome. I maybe wouldn't wear it out with that particular dress! I love the yarn she used. Claudia also showed us her new tattoo. (see her blog for more details) I love it and am so tempted but DH may never go for it. (Although, I was wearing him down and he started to waver, so maybe!) It looks bad ass and I want to be a bad ass knitter too. Where is it you ask??? Well maybe after it heals she will let me get a good shot of it!

What did I do... well I worked on my sockapalooza socks and then ripped it all back. So much for talking and knitting. I have 16 rows plus an inch of ribbing and they will be done, finished and completed. Maybe tonight, at bowling. I still need to wash them before mailing. Gotta go knit oops I mean work!