How many times can I blog the same finished project before anyone notices?

I finished my pair of monkey socks last night at my knitting group. (Technically when I got home, because I still had to graft the toe). This is what i did to make the pattern complete on the foot:

I try to not do too much gift knitting. I can’t handle the pressure! This year though, we’re under a severe money constraint for Christmas, so I thought I’d do a bit of knitting from the stash. Project number 1 is a pair of ‘Happy Honey Socks’ for my husband:

It’s been a bit of time since I’ve made him a pair of socks. I found this yarn on sale at Webs for a pretty good price. I really like the Regia 6ply yarn. It makes a nice durable sock, and it’s not quite as much knitting as fingering weight socks would be for his big feet.

I had tried a more fiddly pattern, but in the end it turned out too fiddly. This ribbing is the same as you find on the knitty thuja socks; but this yarn isn’t as thick.

For the record, most of the other Christmas knitting is dishcloths.  With the exception of a sweater for my son – I haven’t figured out what pattern to use for him yet, I do have the yarn already for it.

It’s not done yet, but I’m making slow progress. I’m not knitting much these days because I’ve been busy working on Knit Visualizer 2.0.  See?

There it is in the background!  Excellent progress has been made, but lots of user interface tweaks needed so that it’s easy to use.

I’ve joined the cult – the cult of people making monkey socks. It’s an easy pattern to memorize, and quick to knit.

*Someone else used this blog title recently too; but I can’t rememember who.  Substitute “Hey, hey, we’re the monkeys – people say we monkey around” at your leisure.

I’ve been uploading a lot of photos into flickr so I can use them in Ravelry. I also get to link to all the patterns I’ve designed and am selling at The Knit Foundry. Yay!!

This is the pinkest sock I’ve ever knit. I designed it for the February sock of the month club at theknitter.com a few years ago. The yarn, Dolly Bollicine, was wonderful to knit with. I made a pair of fair isle mittens with the Dolly yarn (different colors) after these socks. I’ll have to see if I can dig up the pictures of those.

PS. you can buy the pattern for these socks here.

We have a toe (plus a bit of foot):

The yarn is SO bright, I think I like it :)

I’ve since started a pattern on the foot. It’s just simple k3 p2 ribbing; and will eventually be the Horcrux socks at the cuff (pattern from Six Sox yahoo group).

I didn’t rib back to start the ribbing. When i wear them, the stunted ribbing sock will be in my shoes. The 2nd sock I’ll start the ribbing sooner. Or maybe not.

The best way to spend your birthday after the big celebration is over:

Note the glass of wine, the ball winder, umbrella swift and beautiful orchid in the background. The yarn on the swift was the actual birthday present: The March 2007 yarn selection from Spunky Fiber.

The yarn is fingering weight and a fabulously bright color, ‘Dandelion’, I’m doing toe-up socks with it, as I’ve never knit a toe-up sock before and wanted to do something new. So far I’m just doing stockinette because I think any pattern at all would get lost in this riot of color. I might change my mind by the time I get to the cuff.

It’s raining sock pictures! My mom is re-learning how to knit after quite a long break (try about 20+ years). She is cutting her teeth on a sock.  (yes, we both are crazy and it does run in the family) . she chose a sock pattern I wrote (so she could call and ask me for help when she got stuck, althought= I would have helped her either way).  The pattern is inside-outside socks (available at theknitter.com), a pattern that is completely reversable; you can wear them inside out and you can barely tell the difference.   Here is her first sock:

Looks pretty good doesn’t it!?  The heel is a short row garter heel, and she did have to rip it out once to redo it; but I think it looks great. The yarn is a wonderful color too!

I finished weaving in the ends on a pair of socks today:

The sock top is a bit blurry in the pic, and the coloring in the yarn makes it hard to see that it’s a lace pattern.  This is the design for theknitter.com’s Sock of The Month club next month (or the month after).  It’s a great pattern to knit up – it goes really fast; and they are going to be super comfortable to wear.

I started a new pair of socks today – one that I’m designing. It’s a question if the pattern I want to do will work out in the yarn I have, but I’m hoping it will. If it doesn’t, I’ll save that pattern for a different yarn and choose something else for this particular yarn. Pictures to come when I get further than a boring 1×1 ribbing.

You saw the yarn Katie and I dyed in skein form. Here’s it all up in a ball, with two other different skeins dyed with koolaid:

I was trying for some particular effects, and think I failed pretty miserably about 50% of the time.  The light yellow and blue is awful all over. The red and purple isn’t
so bad, and will make great socks for Katie, but the colors aren’t quite what I imagined.  The first one is still my
favorite. I cast on with that this week; and am in the process of
determining the best pattern for it. I do love the bright and cheery
colors.