Continuing Saga of the Norwegians

Well, I got my Norwegians out of the corner today and pulled the needles out. Then I put that sucker on and it's not as bad as I thought. While the leg is tighter than usual it is not too tight to wear, but that heel is horrible (puffy and baggy). So today I ripped the sock back to the heel turning and redid the heel turn in the normal way (round heel, I think it's called) then I picked up 12 stitches along the heel instead of 14 and it is much nicer now. I do like the stranded pattern and it is a very easy one to knit, though I am finding the blues rather boring. So I am going to finish this sock and make the final decision on whether I'll continue to knit the second after this is finished, blocked and put on my foot for inspection. Thanks for all the comments and suggestions!

I got an email today that my first postcrossing postcard arrived. In her profile she said she liked handmade cards so I sent her one and she says she loves it! Yeah! Can't wait until I receive my first card!

Karen, the pink sock I'm currently knitting is the February kit from the sock-of-the-month club. This is my fifth kit from the club and I've been happy with it every time.

I'm working on the foot of this now and I love it. This will help me knit the Norwegian too because when I sick of the blues in it I can come back to the lovely pink!

Dawn, the 4x6 swap I belong to is called zapbooks and you can find out more and join the group here. This is only my first month, so I can't say much about it yet but sign ups for the March swap will be starting in a few days.

Sock Apathy Over

Still haven't decided about the Norwegians, keep the comments coming if you have an opinion. So, while I make my decision I added a little light to my knitting by casting on for these:



How can you not enjoy knitting pink???

Conundrum

Not much to report knitting wise these days. Much of my knitting time is spent on the mitred blanket which is nearing completion. Every time I want to knit I seem to pick up the blanket and this is probably because I am feeling rather ambiguous about the Norwegian socks.



The leg is somewhat tighter than I like, it fits but .... Maybe blocking will help, I don't know. The heel is a bit loose and I know blocking won't help that. The foot will probably be ok but I haven't done enough yet to decide. Not sure if I really want to continue with these or not, colours are rather ho-hum too. What to do ... what to do? If I finish this one and knit another sock I will have to fix the fit problems, do the leg looser and mess around with the heel stitches so it's not so big. Then I'd have two socks that fit differently. Guess I could rip this out and start all over again, but can't say I feel too inclined to do that. Could finish this one up and call it a learning experience. All my other stranded socks have been done in fingering (this is sport) and I know exactly what needles, number of stitches, etc to get a good fit with the fingering. So I gotta make a decision. What would you do?
1) knit the second sock fixing the fit problems and have two different sized socks.
2) rip it out and start again, even though you have no love for it.
3) just knit the one and chalk it up to experience.
4) ???

Unloved Sock Yarn

Yeah! My Unloved Sock Yarn Swap arrived today from Lisa. Thank you!



And my latest altered puzzle piece is for a theme called: Simply Vintage.



Comments:

Lissa: the mitred blanket in the picture is getting quite large. I haven't measured it but it's almost big enough for the couch. But I'm trying to make this a full size blanket for my bed so it still has a bit to go before it's big enough.

Kim: the puzzle pieces are done on the front of children's puzzles. You just paint or glue a background over the picture.

Christmas in New England?

The kotr kal is knitting the New England socks this session. I'm not a big fan of knitting lace and at first had thought I would not knit these socks. But then I felt kind of bad about skipping a sock and thought how could I knit the pattern without knitting the socks. And came up with the idea of a Christmas stocking. This way I only had to knit one sock but felt better about having knit the pattern. I plan to embellish it with lace/buttons/trims, etc but don't have anything on hand at the moment so will wait till the Christmas stuff comes out later in the year.



Pattern: New England from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush
Yarn: Red Heart supersaver Light Sage 5mm dpns
Notes: I followed the pattern exactly using worsted weight yarn. I used the same heel and toe shaping as the pattern but modified a bit to create a short foot.

A huge portion of my knitting time is being spent on the mitred blanket. I had to buy another ball of black to continue working on it. When I started I filled up a basket with scraps. I have since emptied it and have filled it a second time and it's slowly emptying again.


Progress shot of the blanket:


Now that the New England sock is done I have started the Norwegian socks for the folk sock kal. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to knit this sock because I wasn't sure I had enough yarn for it. And being in the stash-a-long I'm not allowed to buy any new yarn. But after combing through the stash I came up with sufficient quantities of some vintage Pingouin yarn. Not the colours I would have chosen if I was buying yarn for it but I am happy with it.


My January sock of the month club kit finally arrived last week. I'm really pleased with it. A simple pattern but I love the pinks. Deb has already started these and they are lovely.


On to paper crafts:

I am working with the 4x6 postcard size a lot now and this is my recent card. "Study in Grids #1"


I also did another altered puzzle piece. This one is for a frog theme puzzle. I have sent out all the pieces to my Wizard of Oz puzzle and am now waiting for them to arrive to the artists who will be working on them.

4x6 Swap

I joined a swap for 4x6s, they call them zap pages and they are like ATCs only done in postcard size of 4x6. I've tried the ATC size and it's just too small for me. I've had a lot of fun working with the 4x6 size. Here are the cards I'm swapping.

For the Blue theme:



For the Random (anything goes) theme:



You can view all my collage work here.

December Rose & Royalty

Pattern: December Rose by Laura Anderson (sock-of-the-month Kit)
Yarn: Cascade 220 purple & Berroco Cotton Twist gold

My next altered puzzle piece is for a one to one swap with a Royalty theme.

A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

Three posts in one day!

A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading

The Reading Mother
I had a mother who read to me
Sagas of pirates who scoured the sea,
Cutlasses clenched in their yellow teeth,
"Blackbirds" stowed in the hold beneath.

I had a Mother who read me lays
Of ancient and gallant and golden days;
Stories of Marmion and Ivanhoe,
Which every boy has a right to know.

I had a Mother who read me tales
Of Gelert the hound of the hills of Wales,
True to his trust till his tragic death,
Faithfulness blent with his final breath.

I had a Mother who read me the things
That wholesome life to the boy heart brings —
Stories that stir with an upward touch,
Oh, that each mother of boys were such!

You may have tangible wealth untold;
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be —
I had a Mother who read to me.

- Strickland Gillilan

Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday

This week's questions brought to you by Deb, reader extraordinaire. Thank you, Deb.

1. Do you lend your books to other people? Not really. I have two kinds of books. Books I keep and books I read and get rid of.


2. If so, do you get them back? Most paperbacks and novels I read and then give away for keeps.


3. What do you do if they're not returned? Send the police? Stop speaking to the borrower? Storm the house and take them back? The books I keep are special to me. ie. a gorgeous colour illustrated hardback edition of the Lord of the Rings and I would not give this to anyone. I don't care who they are! LOL

Recipe for a Mitred Blanket

On the knitting front I have one December Rose sock (December sotmc) done and am working on the second. I also started my new sock design and am showing a sneak peak. I can't be bothered to mess around with the camera today so I'm showing scans. The December Rose sock is actually a royal purple.




Here is one of my recent collages.

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Mitred Blanket Recipe

Aimee asked in the comments below how I make the mitred blankets. I do not use a pattern, it is just something I put together and I'll share what I do.

If you know how to knit mitred squares read on. If not I highly recommend "Domino Knitting" Vivian Høxbro. This is the best info I have read on mitred squares, it not only tells how to knit the squares but details the techniques for joining and weaving. Even if you know how to knit mitres I'd recommend this as a library read for sure.

{recipe removed, I may be having this published and must remove this for now}