In my last post, I told you about the baby sock that I knitted. That was a great success. I decided to take the next step toward my goal and try my hand at making an adult-sized sock, toe-up.

I learned Judy’s Magic Cast-On (love it!) – terrific video here – chose The Knitting Swede’s Rounded Toe, and proceeded to use Silver’s Sock Class to make the sock.

Silver’s tutorial is for two-at-a-time, but I just followed instructions for one. I must say, this is a VERY GOOD tutorial and I highly recommend it.

I found that I am just not too fond of the heel. Silver gives instruction for a short-row heel and I really think I prefer the heel flap. I got to the cuff, knitted a few rounds and then cut the yarn.

I then began my quest for a toe-up pattern that includes a heel flap. Last night, I found a pattern called Mash Up Magic Loop Toe Up Socks, by Zhenya Lavy.

This pattern has all of the components that I’m looking for: toe-up, worked using magic loop and it has a gusset and heel flap. After downloading the pattern, I noticed that really it is more of a recipe… You take measurements, swatch, put numbers in blanks, do a little simple math and voila, you end up with the perfect sock!

I find the numbers and calculations to be very comforting. If you have the foot available for measurement, you will get a sock that fits perfectly. She also gives numbers as estimates, if you don’t have the person’s measurements.

I’m excited to be able to get started on these socks and I have a feeling that it will be my go-to pattern. Also, I visited her blog and she actually has a workshop for this pattern. Step-by-step, with pictures, well-written! Until I get the how-to burned into my memory, I’m sure I’ll be visiting her site, often!

Because I was unhappy with my latest iteration of the mighty sock, I did not take pictures. But rest assured, when I finish with my next (hopefully my last!) practice sock, I’ll post some pictures.

I downloaded the e-book “Knitting Socks for the Absolute Beginner” from amazon. It was written by Diane Dobson-Barton.

I chose this “book” because it was a step-by-step pattern for how to create a sock. Mind you, it is a baby sock, but it has all of the elements of any other.

It took me two days (working a few hours per day) to complete this sock. It looks like it would be the right size for a 3- or 4-year-old child.

I used one, size-3 circular needle (with 40” cable) and sport-weight baby yarn.

Now, I’m learning how to make them toe-up!

How has your week been? Mine was long, but this weekend has been nice!

We got our tax refund and I ordered some circular needles and yarn. When my supplies arrive (hopefully by the end of the week) I intend to learn to make socks! I’m quite excited! Socks were the reason why I learned to knit in the first place. Do you have any website, pattern or book suggestions?

I haven’t done any more work on the Irish Hiking cowl or the One Row Lace scarf. And I haven’t done any more work on the African Flower Mandala afghan. I did however start another doily (a pineapple motif). Yeah, I think I have a pretty good case of project ADD going on…

I am not going to start another project. I think four projects and socks should be my limit. Actually, less than that, ideally. But, I am going to allow myself to start doing the socks.  Besides, the weather is getting warmer. We don’t really need scarves and cowls and afghans now, right???

In other news…

School is going along great. This course is not as difficult (yet) as I was expecting.

My youngest child is in Washington DC to speak to people about YouthBuild. I’m so proud of him!

The animals are all doing well. I still haven’t decided when to shear the goats. And we still haven’t decided whether or not we’re keeping the horse.

My sister and I are planning on going to the High Desert Wool Growers Fiber Market Day, on the 31st. We went last year and it was fun. I think we may make this a yearly sister thing.

Have a great week!

This past week, work has been CRAZY!!! We’ve had three people out on vacation and we lost one gal, last week. So, this week we’ve been down four bodies. The workload hasn’t been drastic (with the exception of today), but because we’ve had so many absent, many of us have been working overtime. Well, if I only work eight tomorrow, I’ll just get a full 40, because I had a couple of hours to make up. Thankfully, the three absentees will be back on Monday and we’ll be able to breathe again.

As a result of the extended hours, I’ve been exhausted. I’ve been in bed before 9:00 (generally before 8:30!) every night. This is unheard-of for me. The only time I go to bed that early, I’m ill. Since I’m finally pulling out of being ill for what feels like the last eon, I’m really hoping that it’s just the hard work.

I haven’t done any crafting this week, but last weekend I started to learn the crochet crocodile stitch. Now, admittedly, I’m not the most intuitive crafter… I can make ANYTHING, but I MUST have a good pattern (same with cooking). When I was trying to learn this new stitch, I had a heck of a time.  I think some folks, when creating patterns, assume that people can “fill in the blanks” and I am just not one of those people. I was up until 1:30 in the morning on Saturday, trying to “fix” the pattern for this stitch. I found three patterns that were all a little different and I combined them to create what (I hope!) is an easy-to-follow pattern. I’ll post it here on my blog and on ravelry. My guess is that while I may be one of the few that struggle with (what seem to be) incomplete patterns, I’m not the only one. I’m not sure when this will happen, but I’m going to try to git-er-done this weekend.

Because I was so involved in the crocodile stitch, I didn’t do any knitting. So the Irish Hiking cowl that I’m making for my hunny, is hibernating. As is the One Row Lace Scarf that I opted to make in the Bunny Print yarn. And I can’t make both at the same time, because they both require size 8 needles and I only have one pair. Gosh… I’m working on: two scarves, one neck warmer and an afghan… I don’t think I’ve ever had so many works in progress at the same time!

I’ve taken a couple of pictures, but I haven’t resized them, yet. I’ll try to get more pictures and post them this weekend.

There hasn’t been much going on around here, though I do have a few things to report…

I passed my CPT coding course and am now on to my next course: Healthcare Reimbursement Methods. Once I finish this course, I’m on to my externship! After I correctly code 12 medical records (in my externship), I will be a graduate! Yay!

We’ve had some snow, around these parts. My sweetie says we’re sitting at about 2 feet of the stuff, on the ground right now; much of which has fallen in the last couple of days. It’s been bitter cold and windy. Thankfully, the next few days are supposed to be sunny and warmer. I am so ready for spring!

Have you ever heard of Irlen Syndrome? Yeah, me either… Yesterday, I was visiting my favorite tatting forum: Needle Tatting and one of our regulars linked to a post on a tatting blog: Tatted Treasures. When I visited, her post was discussing her battle with Irlen Syndrome. When she was describing her symptoms, I identified with enough of them that I thought I’d take the self test. It can be found on the Irlen Institute website. I was quite surprised at the results of my self testing and have scheduled an appointment with a diagnostician. This could be the key to many (if not all) of my issues with light. I’m very excited at the prospect of relief and so thankful that I found Heather’s blog!

Work has been okay. We just found out that our department is merging with another. This doesn’t normally bode well for “contract” employees. I’m a bit nervous that I’m soon to be unemployed again. And though I work for the Evil Empire, I hope they offer me a permanent position. It’s a good job, pays well, decent hours. It would be nice if it wasn’t 35 miles away from my house, but we can’t have everything, I guess.

The goats are doing well. They’re spending more time in their house – understandable when it’s 15 degrees (Fahrenheit) and wet outside.

I don’t recall if I mentioned this in my last post, or not… But, we harvested one of our pigs. She was 230 pounds hanging weight. Well, it’s been almost a month and hunny went and picked her up today! Mmmm… We’re going to be eating good! No more rationing the meat! Yay!

Dizzy (the horse) is doing well. She’s gaining both weight and spirit, every day. We put her blanket back on, because of the cold. The first night, she managed to take it off; but other than that, it’s stayed on.

Well, I guess that’s all folks! I hope you have a good night!

As promised, pictures of the doily!

This project kills two birds with one stone: my first doily and my first crochet project using thread.

It worked up pretty quick. I only worked on it for a couple of hours an evening.

I used a size 7 steel hook and size 10 thread.

My gauge kept changing, because I’m not used to using those little hooks. Blocking helped, but not as much as I hoped it would.

If you’d like to give it a go, I found the pattern at ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/doily-7276.

The next project I’ve started is a knit scarf: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/irish-hiking-scarf.

It’s taking me about 5 minutes to knit one row; so it’s going to be a while before I have an actual scarf to wear. But, it’s a simple pattern and it incorporates cables, which are fabulous and amazingly easy to do!

For the scarf, I’m using the blue baby yarn that I used to make Matthew’s blanket. It’s soft and I love the colors!

Have a good night!

Sad to say, I think this is the longest I’ve gone since posting…

Well, at least I have a good reason… I’m back in school! I had taken quite a long break and now I’m back into the thick of it. The next several weekends (with the exception of next Saturday) are going to be spent with my nose in the books. I have one more unit to do in the CPT course and then I’m on to Reimbursement Methods. Once that course is finished, I’m on to my Externship! Yay! I won’t be able to put the C.C.A. after my name, unless I sit for the state certification exam, but that’s expensive. Thankfully, being certified is not a requirement for coding. Education isn’t required either, but it certainly looks good on a resume!

The job is going pretty well. We just found out that we’re merging with another department. Mergers don’t often bode well… So, all of us temp-to-perm folks might be losing our jobs in April. Ugh. Thankfully, I’ve made enough money that I can draw unemployment, if I need to.

Animals are doing good, my hunny is doing good… Not much else to report.

I crocheted a doily (my first crochet thread project), but I don’t have enough light to take pictures. I’ll try to do it this weekend.

It’s been over a week since my last post, so I figured I’d better write something.

Not much to report. I went to the doctor last Monday and she put me on some medications. I’m still trying to adjust. So, I’ve been very tired and low energy.

No crafting has happened in the past week. Though, I’ve been hanging out on Ravelry and looking at pretty patterns that I’d like to try.

Okay kids, that’s all I have for now. Have a good night!

This past week has been spent quietly passing the time watching TV, for the most part. I’ve been watching an extinct show called “Brothers & Sisters”. I really like it and I’m glad that it’s being streamed on Netflix.

The reason why I haven’t been doing much is that I think I’m coming down with a bug. My cube-mate at work has been sick for a couple of weeks; but she hasn’t stayed away from the office… I may have caught her cooties. I’m just tired and feeling yucky…

However, I have done a very small amount of crafting… Something I haven’t shown you any pictures of… Tatting!

Tatting projects are built with a series of rings and chains. They are created either using a shuttle or a needle.

When tatting, one is creating half-hitch knots, often with picots thrown in. Picots serve two purposes: decoration and joining. When you are joining two parts together (such as the two rings at each end of a chain) you need a way to put them together. A picot allows this to happen.

Thread is used with a long needle. The thread sizes range from something almost as small as sewing thread, on up to yarn. The higher the number, the thinner the thread. Needles also range in size. And like knitting and crochet, you need to use the proper size needle for the thread that you’re using. In this bookmark project, I used size 20 or 30 thread. I’m not sure which needle size I used; but it is the second from the largest in my set.

Tatting is an old art. My great-grandmother used to tat lace. She even made a tablecloth! The skill managed to skip a couple of generations and I decided to pick it up. The only difference is that I’m unable to use a shuttle. So, I’ve learned to tat using a needle.

I’m afraid that I don’t have any pictures of the finished bookmark to show you… I realized that I didn’t give myself enough needle thread to use, so I only got halfway finished. There is a way to attach more thread, but I didn’t feel like messing with it. Ah well, maybe next time!

Goats!

I wanted to show you some pictures of my boys’ coats. As usual, Frank was uncooperative.

Here you see Frank:

Not a very good picture… But, of him, they never are. At least you can see his coloring. He has a lovely reddish-brown wool.

And here is Ray:

He doesn’t have to be tricked into looking toward the camera.

See the wooden thing Ray is standing behind? That’s their manger… The naughty boys have got into the habit of knocking it over. We picked it up and tied it to the fence. Hopefully it won’t be so easy to knock over… Well, not until they chew through the rope, anyway.

And afghans!

As I’ve been promising you, some shots of the work in progress… This is the afghan that I’ve been working on for quite a while (and have not worked on in quite a while). It is based on the pattern for the African Flower potholders that I made a while back.

The pattern is the same as the potholders (minus a couple of rows) but the yarn is not.

I’m using Hobby Lobby’s “I Love This Yarn” in the colors Pink and Brown. Yes, that’s their names.

It’s an acrylic yarn; but it’s super soft! It isn’t “squeaky” like some acrylic yarn can be. Plus, you can’t really beat acrylic for clean, bright coloring and color-fastness. It’s also very durable. And for people who are allergic to many natural fibers, it means itch-free warmth. I think it’s going to make a comfy afghan.

The first photo doesn’t quite show all of the hexagons, but almost. All that I have done, up to this point, has taken a few yards less than one skein of each color. I now have five skeins of each color left… No, I’m not going to make it THAT big. As it is, it nearly covers my legs. I’m not sure how big I’m going to make it, but I intend to use it on the couch. So, probably no bigger than a large throw blanket.

This has been a bit time consuming; it takes me about 45 minutes to do one hex. I’m using the join-as-you-go method of putting them together. Yay! No sewing! I’m doing them in groups of three: three hexes that start with brown all put together, and three hexes that start with pink all put together. And I’m trying to avoid large runs of one type of hex… Easier said than done…

Well, that’s all for today! We need to go get feed for the horse and pigs. Stay warm!