Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Unexpected Visitor

Looks like this year we have a couple of unexpected visitors for the holidays. Take a look!
AND
Come on Frosty, wipe that smile off your face while I go shovel some more snow! Give me a break I need to have time to knit.
We have opted to delay Christmas as there is no parking in front of the house, and the potential for one more snow storm... the last one? Today's high was 34 degrees, NO, that is a good temperature! Hopefully, the 4 ft + snowdrifts are not covering our address, so.... IF Santa chooses to come he will recognize we are not Alaska state. It really would be a bummer to get Homer, Alaska - Sally's stocking full of crochet hooks and snowmobile wrench set. It would definitely be better to get Sockergirl's stocking full of sock yarn and size 2.5 needles.
I did manage to get this month's Sockamania pattern completed. It was made from stash yarn, which explains why you might not be able to see the fancy lace and cable pattern. Not really that fond of the Seashore color way, Lorna. Although I still like knitting with Lorna's Lace yarn. Oh, this picture showed the 4 inches of new snow this morning which resulted in 2 hours of shoveling this afternoon and a little neighborhood exploration.
First off, I had to get out my skis to get the newspaper at the paper box half a mile away. Then I discovered that my Neighbor actually had his paper delivered! You bet I hucked that paper at his door in disgust.

Obliviously, the above house does not reside any knitters. This photo will remind you to wrap your pipes in lots of warm knits before you leave home. It would be bummer to return home for a little local ice climbing instead of using the stairs on your house.
Finally, warm wishes to all my fans. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and lots of lumps of wool in your stocking!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Oh BOY!

ふぶき! is your word of the day. ”Fubuki" is the word for Blizzard.

Sorry, not that kind of blizzard, the kind from Mother Nature.
Yep, it is another day of snow here in the great northwest! As you will see below this is my current mode of transportation.

As you guessed, this method of transport takes a little more work and requires eating more chocolate. But Mother Nature's windchill temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit, surprisingly is not a problem. Today's mission involved mailing those last minute Christmas cards. For some reason our mail carrier is not picking up or delivery mail in the 4 ft drifts since Saturday. So I took it upon myself to drop off those final letters to Santa, and collect the mail. There I found out that today's mail did not EVEN make it to the post office. Maybe the truck could not make it up the icy hill through snow drifts?
What do you think? Am I the next van Gogh? Yesterday it snowed 12 inches or so with big drifts. I dug out the house to prevent potential water seeping in the event it warms up to tropical temperatures of say 40 degrees. The hour and half work built up a nice 2 foot tall berm the length of the house. From this shoveling I was able to salvage my ice chunks to have a try at modern art. It is quite pleasant to view through out the day as the snow falls. (The snow has been so dry this past week it is impossible to make a snowman.)

While I felt very accomplished at my art work and shoveling..... the snow started up again at 5pm and dumped all night long until 2pm-ish. You got it. I had to start all over again, another 90 minutes of shoveling with out the umph for modern art. This time the drifts are out of control and my shovel piles are about 4 feet tall. Depending on the weather tomorrow I may go play in the snowdrifts next to the house to build a knitting cave. I have an extra snow shovel and extra hot chocolate if any of you readers wish to join? I am ready for anything!

Let's take a look at a few houses around here. :)

Now let's take a look at the main road through the 'burbs. (3 lane road during rush hour) Really I don't live in the sticks.
The next post should have knitting and... probably some snow, as there IS another snow storm scheduled. Hope everyone is safe and warm. Christmas shopping complete? well, I apologize to all my readers, even my #1 fan, due to the weather I have been unable to shop for your individual gifts.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Knitting up a storm

Now don't be mistaken, I did not knit so hard to cause the horrible storm which has come to the Northwest. The first snow fall was sorta welcome on Sunday to allow me to stay in and knit up some quick washcloth patterns for Christmas gifts. The next 3 or 4 storms I wanted to go away NW style - melt quickly and be done. Anyway, we will start with a little penguin on ice. My little friend is kind of in a penguin phase.

Kawaii, ne! My little friend, she is going to love this one. Then my little dude is going to enjoy a little fishing in his bath time.

Then there was of course the last minute present for a co-worker. I used my left over mohair from my un-sewn sweater combined with a DK weight wool. Multi-direction-diagonal scarf. It is quite a timely gift for our temperatures in the teens. She loved it and almost did not take it off at work.... that was until she broke into a sweat! Seriously, it HAS snowed every day this last week. ARGH!!

Today is a complete blizzard. I tried to get video or pictures for all you fans... but the lens kept getting snowy. In the evening pictures were a bit easier? I didn't mind the 16 degrees and wind chill of 0 degrees Fahrenheit for the sake of my reader(s).

It is so windy I did not think there was much snow accumulation, until I wondered around the house. The above drifts may go up to my knees. (While I may pretend to be, I am not Asian. I am like 6 feet tall.)

This is the eco-girl in me trying to use stash yarn as much as possible. The next pair of socks, Lace & Cables, used my Lorna's Lace Seashore colorway. It came out... uhm quite... uhm not as hoped.... a little on the ... uhm... ugly side. Not really the pattern's fault. I knew this pattern would be better with a solid, instead of the Seashore's horrendous pooling pattern. I love Lorna's lace and just wanted to knit with it. So this time I am not quite sock worthy. :( My secret stash of yarn is in its treasure box in a far away land. Can't wait to go retrieve another handful of fiber from the magic box.
I was able to finally complete my traveling socks, but I will save that posting for another day. Instead I will leave you with a cheery frog I found while I was out and about, enjoy.
And there was this beautiful scene not far from his reflection pond.
Amazing, isn't it? well, stay safe & warm in front or your computers. Oh, And keep reading!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

November?

Uhm.... yeah, bye-bye November it's time for December. I am hoping for even lower gas prices and a bit of snow. If the slow retail sales continue, then I may have more leisure time for knitting (from stash) and playing in my snowshoes wearing special handcrafted wool socks, of course.
Again, not sure where November went..... let me see.....

I was not able to visit Obama, but this summer I think there is need for some research and sock investigation. Hey, Maybe there is an Obama Yarn shop?? I won't know unless I go and check it out, right? Of course, all of you fans are now dying to know more about this fabulous fishing village. You must not be let down. So hold your socks on until July for those special travel pictures.

The above picture is just a teaser to our little project.

Yarn! Yes, I have been knitting a little. My sock blanket is now 26.1% that is 117 squares of the planned 448. No repeated squares, yet...... I received the above scraps from a new knit pal. I can't wait to add them in to the master"piece."

These Get Fruity socks from Sockamania are HOT off my size two needles. Sizzle sizzle,eh? If you are a real fan, you would remember this yarn I won from the Sockamania drawing in July. Free socks are great, but free is even better with green!

There is no need to clean your screen, the photo is a little blurry. This is another completed pair of autumn socks with Celtic cabled heels. This means there is one more happy sock wearer in the world. Does this mean we are one STEP closer to world peace?

I will continue to travel with AND neglect my reversai socks, they seem to be in search of a more satisfying knit spot....

Lastly a shout out to my ever so reliable fans in Italy, Turkey and the 12 of you in Boring, Oregon. Keep reading as I will try to be more Boring for you next time!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

technical difficulty

Sorry to delay, I seem to have left my laptop power cable at sockermom's house. :( I was able to use the public computers at the library, but I seemed to have taken the little black cloud to the library with me. The printer was not function and would not print off my yarn discount coupon or a pattern I was hoping to read. Even with this mild drama, I managed to make all of my yarn parties with out the use of 24/7 internet information and communication. Yes, I even had to dust off the phone book a few times to get a phone number or address. (When that did not have the my answer I called up knitwisecracker at her computer to assist in the minor crisis.)

Now do you want to see all the unfinished projects?

This is TO-BE a Glow-in-the-dark scarf.


This is TO-BE a pair of cable heeled autumn socks.

Not pictured, still working on my blanket and another pair of socks that has been on a bit of a tour.

I may have mentioned that I am really trying to knit as fast as time permits and trying not to buy any more yarn. This is a hard task when I meet up with my knit gals at the .. yarn shop. Recently, I went through my stash and took a bag of yarn over to the yarn swap party. I really had no intention to bring any yarn home... but..... just look what yarn found me... or was forced on me!

It seems I have enough yarn for about 2 sweaters and bundles of socks. :) I guess this means even less time blogging and more project pictures to come?

Here is a quick shout out to my new fans in Brunei, Portugal and Indonesia!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Squares


In August I was deep into Square making to try and participate in my Dragon friend's BIG birthday party. We made a blanket of 9x9 squares. I learned from this collaborative project that I need to stick to socks. all my squares needed to be blocked and stretched a bit. :( i think I will just stick to hanging out with my my cool triangle friends.

this is my cable square.
My triangle square.

And of course a trade-make sockergirl square. :)
I guess these are the only sock pictures I have for now.... :( but they may have a story to tell soon.

I blame the sweater making to explain why there are not as many postings and pairs of socks. (Good excuse right?)

Here is a smart dumbie who tried to steal my sweater. This is the Central Park Hoodie, made from 5 skeins of Cascade 220. I used all but 6 inches of yarn. It was a little scary. Let's look at the dumbie taking a rest after a few swings.

What a nice sweater! It turned out to be a snugger sweater than I expected. But I really like it. It is green, what is not to like?

Oh no... the dumbie tried to pick blueberries. He is so dumb he did not notice there are no berries left. That is when I was able to tackle him and get my sweater back to wear for the weekend.
Now a shout out to my fans down under, the gals in Charlotte and Paso Robles. I will try to keep the dumbie out of my blog and get more socks pictures to keep you fans happy!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Traveled-traveling Socks


The Ya-Yo gals and I went on a little boat ride to hang at one of the local yarn shops. (I did make a small purchase of Socks that ROck Agate yarn which are on the needles now) This was the second annual or possibly the "3 years after the first trip" Reunion. This year EVERYONE took the public transit to the ferry dock. Yippy! I am slowly influencing ALL my friend. Al Gore are you watching me?

These soon-to-be-famous socks are the Sockamania Cable heel socks. While this weekend they traveled with me and got a few photo opportunities, they will be put in the mail for a new adventure. Watch out "Number won fans," who ever you are... you might find something in your mail box. I am hoping this cool gal will let me in on Cable Sock's next adventures in her clogs. :)

One more with a city shot.

These here are the Sockamania Flower socks. They are going out to one of my scrappy fans. She helped my blanket project in a big way, this caused her to join the number WON club. She will be surprised to see what her garbage scraps can make!

Here is an update on the blanket with a few more scrapped into it. 21% into the project.

This month might not be a typical sockergirl blog as I am trying to make new friends in a sweater knit along. (Yes, I will try to surpress my sock snobbery and pretend to knit sweaters regularly.) I don't think there is need to worry that my name will change to sweatergirl, although it might change to Sweatgirl if this project gets me a bit overworked and stressed out. (hmmm what ever happened to those knit mohair sweater pieces ... dream dream... wishing it would magically sew itself up.)

Now a shout out to my one fan in Istanbul, my groupies in North Brook & Hillsborough.

Friday, August 22, 2008

No free ride?

Who said there was no such thing as a free ride? I will tell you they are wrong. But is that a good thing? I will prove this!
Tonight I went downtown to meet-up for a little knitting. Are you surprised? :)

In addition to being Sockergirl, I try to be Eco-girl. I tend to carry fabric bags and load up my backpack at the grocery check-out. My favorite eco-girl act is utilizing mass transit.

Tonight I walked to the bus stop yarn bag in hand. Everything was very normal for evening rush hour. While the bus WAS on time, the bus driver told me, "The ride is FREE. Get on the bus." I was puzzled because I like to pay for my bus rides to show support for the route in hopes for increased services. BUT I quickly got over it, found my seat and pulled out my sock to turn the heel. After the heel was turned and stitches picked-up, I should have been downtown in 30 minutes. I did not notice my free ride was rolling through traffic to town. 90 minutes later and gusset decreased I made it to my knitting group.

See? There is good in a free ride.

Now the stress in my life. I am not sure how much I am suppose to share in case someone is reading. Are you suppose to stop reading? Do you really want to spoil the surprise IF it is for you? hmm... what are you going to do? Well, I am going to tell you the stress. I was asked to make a 9 inch square in a blanket and here is the problem:
I have the yarn, but now I must choose from 1300 possible patterns to create a 9 inch square! Can you imagine the possible neglect to my sock yarn? I believe I will get through this medium crisis by the end of the weekend and eventually get back to the sock knitting.

On to the topic of #1 Fan

You might ask WHO is Sockergirl's number one fan? And what does the above picture have to do with the "Number-Won." I must mention that it was a tough call to select the "Number-Won fan" My groupies in Cherry Hill, NJ have been wonderful in recent weeks, keep knitting away you could be next! Even those of you home alone reading in Delhi, Albuquerque, Reston and Chile don't give up hope.

My "Number-Won" fan is Knit-wise Cracker! Her gift this round is from the famous Sockermom's Organic blueberry tree.Sockermom even hand picked the lush blueberries for Knitwise-Cracker. The awarded prize was quickly put into pie, check out the yummy results.

Good luck fans, keep reading and leave a little time for knitting!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

In Search for....

I may have found the perfect knit spot for my tough knitter friends. (To enjoy the full views as a reader you may want to click on the picture.) How cozy does this rock look?
This knit spot is not on the bus line, so we all piled into the Subaru and picked-up our NW Forest parking passes for the first day of knitting. As you can see the first lesson was a little confusing.Yes, I thought the bulky 10mm yarn would be easier and safer for lesson number one. These knitters gave a good effort and soon we called it a night.We awoke at 4am to get to the cozy knit rock with the perfect view. At first the mission seemed a bit daunting with the first light and the small shadow of two possible crocheters racing ahead of my knitting team.
Eventually we built up our yarn management speed, yarn overs and tying off....
looking south, capturing great views along the way.Then we looked to the North and dropped our 10mm bulky Noro yarn to scrabble to the best view.
As we settled in to enjoy the knitting view, one of our knitters pulled out a bag of yarn from his hometown. We were all in 'aw' of his Welsh merino. You can see our knitting Chief in the back mid-left looking on to make sure we did not drop any needles from 10,047ft/3064m. Yes, we wear helmets to avoid any needles dropping from above, double points seem to hurt the worst!
Then we knit for an hour in perfect calm weather and the view was fabulous! Watch this:

The Knit Chief made us pack up our yarn after an hour and we went on back to the Subaru. Here is a look back.
Next up, I need to thank a couple of local gals for their generous donations to my sock blankie. Good things may be coming their way. ;)
Stay tuned for an adventure my sockamania socks took me recently, and where they are headed out on their own tour.

Lastly, a shout out to my Newnan, GA fan. I've biked with the BRAG'ers in your town, and camped in your park. Fun hills you've got for cycling. Keep those needles going!