We Greatly Apologize for a Lack Of Posting...

This happens to be the eighty-first post on Arachnera's Web, and I believe I am approaching, if not past, my second blogiversary. Eighty-one happens to be the square of nine, which is the square of three. What my point is in pointing that out to you, I don't quite fathom, but I like the fact that 3⁴ is 81, the number of this post.

I know I have been neglecting you--after school got out, I haven't had consistent internet access, but that's really an excuse, because what I've really been doing is reading fanfiction, some of it really bad, hanging out on forums, and drooling over some on-sale Kureyon. I've drafted perhaps five blog entries in a notebook while I was not at an internet connected computer, but these never got typed up.

In the time between the last post and this one, I have:

• Finished the Austrian Socks
• Knit the Everlasting Bagstopper
• Finished my Swallowtail Shawl (had I started it in last post?)
• Started Laminaria, which I am calling Aearlinnod (Sea-song in Elvish)
• Nearly finished the Entrelac Socks (Knitting on the cuff right now)

Unfortunately, I don't have much time left on the computer, so I will have to truncate this entry for now.

Add, subtract, and shawls

I've mentioned the local coffee shop before and today I found out that the kitchen is being enlarged. But I also found out that one of a neighbor's cherry trees was chopped down. The same one I have picked cherries from 2 or 3 summers.

Speaking of math, you ought to know you need a break when you start reading "4" instead of "r" as I was doing today in math class.

I have long admired Grumperina's progress photos on her Mountain Ash shawl, (Well, maybe not long-long, but it sounds good!) which I hear was recently completed. (Such as this one:)
So, I think I'll borrow one of the Yarn Harlot's pattern photos and show you where I am in the Snowdrop shawl.(BTW, my image is marked differently than Grumperina's because I used Paint rather than fancy Photoshop)

Yes, indeedy (Where did I pick that up?) I have only five rows of snowdrops in the main section to go (40 rows)








(I'm getting a little fed up with the Blogger image alignment thing, but oh well...)
I also have something to show you that I did this weekend. I used a piece of 1/2" 100% nylon organdy ribbon, nail polish, a seam ripper, the smallest between needle in my multi-size pack, reddish/pink yarn and the book I learned to tat from (Reader's Digest Complete Guide to needlework). Keep in mind, however, that these pictures wear taken with a scanner, so you can't see too well. The two with white background had the scanner closed and the one with the black background had the scanner open.


















Only attempt such feats if you have good eyesight, good lighting, and a fair amount of patience.

Be on the lookout for a few changes in the appearance of the blog!
Have a nice day!
Arachnera

(P.S. That was a non-meaningful reference to a song, yes.)

Banana, don't mention the silk, please

I know, the title probably seems crazy, but it relates to 1) my goofy drawings with a little boy involving bananas and strange arms and extremely large eyes and 2) a story problem involving silk, which is haunting me for lack of solving, partially because I misread part of it. I was originally going to title this post "Why do I torment myself?"

Why do I torment myself?
Actually, I don't. I finished a sock in three days. On size twos. This ain't no wimpy worsted weight sock, this is fingering weight. Admittedly, it is perhaps slightly thicker than the average sock yarn, but not very much. The torment was trying to do K3tog with tight stitches in cotton yarn. Ouch. Anyhow, I must email Martingale about the error in Sensational Knitted Socks. Every other size (total stitches divisible by four) has an error in the number of stitches to leave unwrapped for the short row toe/heel.
I used the Russian bind off described on Wendy's blog to finish the socks. I was listening to the Westing Game on CD. A good book, by the way. And, I don't believe I'm suffering from much SSS.
ETA: You will notice that I added a few more blogs that I have been reading to the list on the sidebar.

Knit on,
Arachnera

PS: I have something to say about a few statements I made previously:
I can't say I'm a total Google girl, because I use Yahoo email. I would use Gmail, but am unable to at the moment.
The times the blog displays for posts are earlier than my time, so it wasn't that early when I posted the other day.

No Knitting...

You will notice that this blog has a slightly new look. I am working on a few improvements to the blog and such. The header picture could still use some improvement, but it's there. It was odd, I filled out a survey about Blogger for Google and that was my chief complaint; that I could not figure out how to do that, but now I know how. I guess there might be a bit better way, but I'll post instructions on this at the bottom of the post.

I am also starting something I call a Blog-zine. It is not up and running yet, but it will include articles I write for that purpose, the yarn reviews, and any patterns I make up.

There has been no knitting for a bit...

I am afraid there is no time to go on further, so ignore my promise and try to find some time to go and knit.

Two Socks! At last!

No pics, but I have finished the Ash Braid and Garter Bead socks!
Specifics:
Needles: U.S. size 0, set of 4 dpns
Yarn: KnitPicks Essential Ash
Notes: Wearing them today as I type this, a tad itchy, but comfortable all the same. Stockinette heel flap and Round or Half Handkerchief heel (Nancy Bush (of Folk Socks, Knitting on the Road and Knitting Vintage Socks, which I have not peeked at yet since the library (ies) haven't gotten it to me) 's Heel turn classification.) Pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. Small error in heel flap instructions. The second sock went through a lot; its cuff was frogged, its heel flap had to be frogged and reknitted, needles seemed to be or were lost several times, it was knitted with my hands behind my neck or back.

Other news:

I have a bit of a rant about something that annoyed me today. We are going to be taking a science test on which we are allowed to use however many notes we can fit on a certain number of index cards. Well, I have finished maybe 1/2 of the chapter in notes in very tiny handwriting (4 lines to each index card ruling, and yes, I can read writing that's that small). I taped it to another index card (very lightly, only two little pieces of tape) to prevent it from getting too smudgey and placed it in my science book. It was there at science period today, but somehow it must have gotten dropped and gotten to the other side of the room. Someone pulled them apart (I foolishly didn't have a name on them) to see whose they were, and now there is a rip. I think it will have to be done over.

A young knitter whom I taught finished his first project last Friday (it was a potholder that was supposed to be a Christmas present, but I couldn't help him over Christmas break) with some help from me and was proudly presented to the recipient. He had started a little strip of knitting that could have been a stuffed animal scarf, but it wasn't going fast and he wanted to make a Christmas Present, so, taking EZ's advice (I believe from the September or October chapter of Knitter's Almanac, anyway, it's the one with the pants-like garment. [I forget what she calls them]) I suggested he make a potholder. And so, with some help and some rows from me, it was completed. Yay! My first teaching success. (I tried to teach some of my classmates to knit once, but I'm not sure that they ever completed a project. )

I have started the other Storm sock, although I decided to make it ever so slightly different, making a very subtle change that no one will probably guess. (Guess if you wish)

Official six-month blog anniversery happens on January 13, 2007. I am having a little pre-anniversery party today at the blog. Really, it appears that the true blog aniversery must have been back on December 28, 2006. Why the discrepancy? Well, if you go back to the archive for July of 2006, you will see my only entry for that month here and it includes several entries that appear to have been posted previously somewhere. You see, I originally blogged with Ask's Bloglines, but the WKS that plagued my keyboard annoyed me. (What is WKS? Part of the letters would not appear except as capitals and I think "a" would not appear as a capital at all. It stands for Weird Keyboard Syndrome.) So I switched to the "old" Blogger in July and reposted all my old posts though I had to retype them because not only did Bloglines give me WKS, but the embleer blogging system would not let me copy the text of my posts. I think I am a Google girl all the way, as I highly recommend both the search engine and their Blogger and the Google-affiliated Mozilla Firefox. Anyway!

I did not tell you before, but I often read the blog of Grumperina . I do sew, and that is why in the world the coat is in the UFO list. I have a sewing background however, and a fine little Janome HF107. (I originally typed little fine, but that sounds bizarre...) I learned on a fancier Singer. I'm afraid I can't finish all I wanted to tell you, but this is a fairly long entry already.

(INSERT TITLE HERE)

I don't know what in the world to title this post.
I just discovered the Yarnivore blog. (ETA: And do you know, I just might tag her.) I did a blog search originating at the blogger bar at Lace Rox! (which I don't think I've linked to, yet.) for nalbinding. I was one of the listings! Speaking of the blog, I have to link to the picture I can't get up, so here it is.

Here is a poem I wrote that is pure fantasy because 1: It is not snowing here. It isn't even really cold. 2: I don't have a spinning wheel. I wish both things were different, though.

Winter Morning

Shimmering, glistening
Bare brown branches covered with ice
Under the pale winter sun
Wind cuts the stillness
Snowflakes fly on the gusts
Light glints off drifts of snow
Swept by the wind as dust by a broom
A bird sings its solitary song
Perched within the pine needles
Its feathers fluffed
The only creature to brave the cold

The fire crackles, the wheel hums,
Whirrs to my steady treadling
Pale gray-threaded wool flies
Through my fingers
My feet dance like the blowing flakes
I watch the wool twist,
The wool sheared in the green spring
Scoured and dried by hot summer sun
Carded while autumn's leaves fell
And now spun by the fire
On a winter morning.

And I think, if I have any time, I am going to go to a nearby coffee shop, drink some tea or hot chocolate and knit on the Ash Braid socks, which are nearing the toes. (Maybe 3 rounds before I start decreases and I may be overestimating.) I plan to have them finished to wear on Monday, which is the day the library knitting group I attend meets.

(ETA: If one or more of my weird things did not seem weird, here's something that you probably will think is weird:

I grew up drinking distilled water and skim milk. I never really liked the distilled water, so now I drink spring water, but only certain brands. I won't drink tap or other types of water or other types of milk! )

A New Year

Hi! Welcome to 2007. I haven't completed anything that I can think of, nor do I have pictures to show you. I can't even get the picture I designed for the blog header to get up. (If anyone knows how to do this, please tell me!) If you'd like to see it, I'll try to get a link up. I ran across the Lace Rox! blog a bit ago and I think I will tag her, and maybe a few others. (ETA: I just tagged her!) I just learned what "ETA" means, because it occured both in Jen's meme entry and in an entry at Wendy Knits. It is slightly confusing to figure out what it means...

I took this quiz because I read the first book and I encountered the quiz at Lace Rox!:

Which Chick Are You?

You are SCOTTIE. You live for order in your knitting bag, in your closet and most of all, in your life. You like your friends where you can see them, best friends here, lunch buddies there, and crushes safely admired from afar. Some day you'll come out of your shell, but until your moment comes, you're content to keep your nose low, observing the movers and shakers of the world and taking notes. Your favorite yarn is a nice, workable wool.
Take this quiz!








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Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Whoa! For some reason the font seems abnormally big, but I'm not going to mess with the HTML since I am terribly un-fluent. (ETA: You can't see this. At least, you shouldn't see it, because it seems to be unique to the editing/creating window)

Perhaps back with some more tags slightly later....

(By the way, ETA means Edited To Add)

Last of '06

Indeed, this will be the last post of 2006. I have a new picture I designed for the blog, but we'll have to see how it look with the blog design and whether I can get it up.

A couple items of interest:

• My half blog-i-versery is coming up soon, so I am going to try for a special post then.
• I finished Wheelie and made the following progress from Thursday, December 21 (I think?), 2006 to Sunday, December 24, 2006:
• 1 knitted headbands
• 3 double thick potholders and 3 dishcloths that go with them. (Patterns coming soon!)
• A hat (I had a bit of help with this one-look below!)
• The heel of the "Christmas Socks"
• The last 1 1/2 repeats of Wheelie steering wheel cover
  
• Two batches of Christmas cookies (I actually worked with a family member to make these, though.)
• A surprise, which I will tell you about in a bit.

• I managed to injure my right wrist enough to warrant its being wrapped in an Ace bandage or a wrist brace for Friday evening, most of Saturday and part of Sunday. How did I do this? Well, I knitted 3/4 repeat on Wheelie, maybe a couple repeats of the pattern, the heel flap and the heel on the "Christmas Socks" (Which weren't finished for Christmas...) and the knitted headband (Pattern 17? from Family Circle Easy Knitting Holiday (or) Winter issue '05.) on Thursday. And I made all three potholders, finished Wheelie, and started a dishcloth, on Friday. I did manage to finish the dishcloth on Saturday, but that was about the only knitting I did all day. (I did do a bit on the hat, but that was done on the yellow Knifty Knitter loom from ProvoCraft. ) Anyway, I didn't take proper breaks on Thursday or Friday, plus I typed some, so I managed to put my wrist out of work. (As for the current status of my wrist, other than a bit of discomfort caused by slightly lingering effects or the current effects of typing and/or the condition of the skin around my wrist, it's pretty much fine. And in case you didn't know, I happen to have a skin condition called atopic dermatitis which means that my skin is usually itchy and/or dry and I have to put lotion and medications on my skin to help it not be so itchy and dry. It is especially bad is winter.)
• The surprise: One of the Christmas presents was a quilled picture frame. What's quilling? It's the art of creating curls with paper.. oh, never mind, just go to the site I got when I googled it, since I can't explain very well. This site came up, and like the author, I used regular colored paper cut to size with scissors, regular school type glue and a toothpick to do the quilling. However, I didn't use construction paper, rather pastel copy/printer paper, and I managed to make a split in half a toothpick so it can be used like the one type of quilling tool. I designed the picture frame myself, and one of these days, if I can get it to work, I might be able to get the picture up. I just took up quilling, and as such, although it doesn't look terrible, it doesn't look perfect either. (It does not make it look better that I cut the strips myself and they aren't all of perfectly even width.)
  

I'm going to give you the first meme of this blog, the one The Keyboard Biologist had on her blog (Link on sidebar) in a bit, but I'm going to try to get up the picture first.

(Added Later:)

The Meme:
6 weird things about yourself:

1.) I am, as the Keyboard Biologist is, phone-o-phobic.
2.) I have been known to read books about prime numbers, irrational numbers such as pi and phi, and quintic equations. You can see that I like math. I know this many digits of pi: 3.1415926535897.
3.) I scrapbook some, but I can't explain why in the world it's appealing and although I admire the abilities of the Cricut, would rather have a Kromski.
4.) I have a tendency to avoid certain books and then later think they are the best thing in the world. I refused to check out a Barbara Walker Treasury at the library at first, but for some reason I got curious and now I don't want to return the books to the library whenever I check them out!
5) I have an enormous number of pairs of socks I want to make. Probably over fifty pairs.
6) My belief on the matter of Darwinism: It is totally false and the scientists who try to prove it are wasting there time. As an advocate of creationism (I'm not famous, and I don't travel around doing it, but if you try to tell me Darwinism is true, I will give you reasons why it can not be. Try it in the comments!), I have read several books on the matter, and must conclude that evolution can occur, but does not change animals from one species to another. (But this isn't really weird, so next thing:)
6{actually weird}) I used to like to read computer manuals and books, and possibly still do.
By the way, I forgot to put the rules in!
Rules: (From the Keyboard Biologist Knits, the site where I got the meme)"Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.”
I don't know six people to tag, but I'll try my best and tell you in a bit.
I tagged Jen at Knitpicker. I would tag the Yarn Harlot, but I think she would be too busy to answer the meme. I see if I can figure out a couple other people. I'm afraid I have to go and probably won't be back till 2007!

See you next year!

Warning: Gray second socks, especially with cables and size 0 needles may be disaster prone!

Today, at least in Northern Kentucky, where I am at the moment, is a day of weather for ducks. And umbrellas.

(Added: Warning: Long post!)

As I was saying yesterday, before I had to leave the computer, I have started using Blogger in Beta. So the site is a bit updated and I have something to tell you about the FO names. I also am going to try to put up what had been promised previously. But first: What about the title?

Well, here's the story:
(Note: These socks are the Braid Cable and Garter Bead socks from Charlene Schurch's
First, as noted in this post: "Tragedy", the second sock of the Ash Braid and Garter Bead, as I called them when I typed out the pattern for carrying around, had to be frogged when I had just started the cable pattern after the ribbing since the needles came out. Then, yesterday, I was knitting on the socks during lunch period while sitting outside after eating lunch. By the way, yesterday was not rainy. I was bombarded with questions such as "Can you make mittens?" and "What's crocheting?" (Actually, the latter came about due to the fact that the answer to the previous question was "I've never knitted mittens, but I've crocheted one." And please note that the ask-ers were not adults.) I answered these questions as I knitted the first few rows of the heel flap. Important point: I did not look very closely at the pattern before the heel flap rows. I knitted some more on the heel flap last night until I had only 11 more rows to go to get the requisite 33 rows. I knitted those 11 rows during lunch period after eating lunch, while sitting semi-miserably, since I did not have a particularly good morning. I did not notice that anything was even slightly wrong. Then I started turning the heel after a bit of commotion that is irrelevant to the story. I gradually noticed that one side of the heel seemed to have very few stitches compared to the other side. I had to put the sock away for a bit, after hurriedly tinking the so far turned heel. When I could again work on it, I picked it up and counted the stitches. There were 5 fewer stitches than I ought to have-28 instead of 33! What happened? I had done the heel on the wrong side of the sock, meaning I had fewer stitches than I should have. Unfortunately I didn't even bother to check the number of stitches when I did the decreasing for the heel flap yesterday. It took a while for the specifics of my error to dawn on me, though. So the heel flap is destined to be frogged and re-knit in the correct position.

About finished sock names:
(Note: After I had read and re-read one of the stories from one of the KnitLit books about naming projects, I started doing it my self. It's kind of fun! These names are in order of completion from top down. All patterns are from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. All needles are in U.S. sizes and all patterns were made on sets of 4 dpns.)

"Swing (or Dance) Over the Rainbow"- Name derived from the name of the yarn (KnitPicks Dancing, colorway Swing) and the fact that it has almost all the colors of the rainbow in it.
The pattern: Elongated Corded Rib on 64 sts. Size 2 needles

"Wholly Holey Dieting Daffodils"-Now that's one odd name. Where did it come from? (And why did this part just remind me of part of a riddle?) Well, I thought the "wholly holey" was kind of funny and it's appropriate since the sock is made in Ribbed Lace pattern, which brings me to the "Dieting" part-ribbing draws in, so it's suggestive of dieting socks. (Okay, bad joke and equally odd sentence, where are you going to, Arachnera? Stop it!) The sock yarn is KnitPicks Parade, colorway Daffodil, which again inspired the name.
The pattern: Ribbed Lace on 48 sts. Size 3 needles

"Willy Wonka's Weird Dreams"-Well, the original name considered for these socks was rejected due to possible interpretations. Anyway, although Willy Wonka is known for owning a chocolate factory, the candy SweeTarts is marketed by Nestle as Wonka candy and the sock, which is the Welt Fantastic pattern in Sensational Knitted Socks makes the Sweet Tarts colorway Simple Stripes yarn from KnitPicks look kind of like Willy Wonka was having odd dreams. (You know, the sort where the dream world is about half-real.)
The pattern: Welt Fantastic on 66 sts. (?) Size 1 needles

Yarn Review:
Moda Dea Simple Stripes (Added: Should be Sassy Stripes!)
Purchased on clearance at Meijer. (The yarn mentioned in this post bought at $4.80+ tax.)

Color:
Again, I don't have a picture; I don't have a digital camera and certain circumstances prevent even non-digital photos from getting on this blog unless they are somewhere else on the Internet. I bought the colorway Storm, which is grayish-black, white, and grayish-black & white small spaced stripes. So far the color has turned out rather odd to me. It does not seem to have much of any sense of a regular pattern. I have not, however, knitted but about 3-4-5" on one sock on size 3 dpns. I'm using 48 stitches and a plain vanilla (Why am I calling it plain "vanilla"?) sock pattern except that I'm doing 2x2 rib for the whole leg and haven't decided about the foot. I might be able to update you on this later, once I've done more.

Quality:
It's acrylic, meaning that it is no where near as nice as wool socks. But I could hardly resist buying a bit more sock yarn. And I should have resisted starting socks with it, but I did anyway. There has been one knot-like blip in the yarn, which I knitted in, because for some reason I usually do that. When I was knitting I noticed that it's almost, I repeat, almost squeaky on the needles. (Added: may be inherent due to acrylic.)It seems so far to have a sporadic pattern, but I really can't say since I haven't even finished one whole sock. Check back for possible updates once I get further in the sock.

Overall:
I'd give it 7 on a scale of 10, 1 being "Don't buy this stuff, it's the worst yarn in the world" and 10 being: "You must have this yarn." This is due to the almost squeaky-ness and the so far odd color pattern.

Sorry, but since if I have much more time on the computer, it will go to admiring some yarn and yet more typing on a short paper that is due next week, I have to go. The interesting parts noted in Knitter's Almanac will come in a future post.

New and Improved (Or not?)

You may notice, if anyone has been reading this blog, that the blog has changed a bit. I have added some links, a list of my WTMs, WIPs, and FOs, and have switched to Beta Blogger. This blog was originally located with Bloglines, but was moved due to typing problems. I have not had any typing problems with Blogger as of yet (Except for mistakes due to hitting random keys that Windows sometimes interprets as a command and that sounded somewhat awkward, but I can't put my finger on it and this sentence is.... EEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!) To be continued....

To be continued...

I really have too many WIPs. But I am trying to finish them. These coming up are posts that I have more to add to, so I'll show them to you. Thus I feel that "To be continued..." is an appropriate title. Read on for sock info, and rants on not-helpful yarn company websites and swastikas in knitting.

I just moved from bloglines because their window is causing my keyboard to exhibit an extremely weird syndrome of disabling the capability to type various letters in capitals or lowercase. Thus, I am showing you the last few posts because they needed to be continued:

(posted July 13, 2006)
This blog is going to be moved! For some reason, this window for typing blog entries keeps triggering the weird keyboard syndrome...

Yarn Websites...
(Last Updated July 13, 2006)

Gosh darn it!

Where could I find the pattern for the Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino T-shirt I have seen advertised in several magazines (which might have been rather old, but *shrugs*)? I'm curious about this pattern. I don't particularly care for their website, either.

Sorry, to be continued...


So...
(Posted June 28, 2006)

Unfortunately, I have no pictures, but I have wonderful news!

I have now finished three pairs of knitted socks and one pair of crocheted socks. I seem to suffer from severe SSS. However, I seem to have recovered somewhat. Forgive me for the out of place capitals, but my keyboard is doing something weird and will not type certain letters such as S, M, K, R, and F, unless I press the Shift key while doing so. Whatever could be wrong? Let me try the Caps Lock. IS THIS BETTER? YES, IT IS BUT IT SEEMS LIKE I'M YELLING! OH DEaR. Great! I can only type lowercase a's and only capital S M K R, and F. What is wrong with my keyboard? Oh, well....

To be continued...

Continued:

Hey, my keys are working correctly again!

Okay, now to explain about those socks. My first pair of socks took from December or so of '04 to April or May of '06 to finish. I did however, finish two other pairs of socks while between sock 1 and sock two. The first pair were a plain vanilla sock pattern given to me in a knitting group at my local library, in Bernat Sox Jazz Hot. The recipient of these has worn them once, I believe (It was not me!). Then came a pair of white socks in Patons Grace, I believe the color was called Snow, mostly out of the same pattern, but with a clover-ish (Actually, I think it's called cloverleaf lace.) lace motif inserted at the top of the foot over the heel. My crocheted pair were made in white acrylic... (Yeah, right, blah! But I had to use the stuff for something. I can agree with whoever it was that explained about large stitches digging into your foot; those socks HURT after a day on your feet wearing them.)

Most recent pair finished were started the week before May 12, 2006, and finished last Thursday during a power outage. Luckily, I was able to see enough to complete the toe decreases and graft the toe. These socks were made in KnitPicks Dancing Swing and with the Elongated Corded Rib on 64 stitches with very slight modification to the pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. Sorry to this wonderful author for this weird capitalization, but my keyboard is acting up yet again. Luckily her name does not start with a, or I'd have a problem. Embleer Keyboard!

To be continued yet again...

Note: The Weird Keyboard Syndrome (WKS) has been edited out of this post. Also, I would like to add that the white acrylic mentioned is worsted weight Red Heart. I also corrected a few minor spelling errors.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now that you've heard all these: Here's today's post:

As for the socks:
Now that the swing socks(64 sts., by the way) are finished, I have 3 more socks in progress. One in the Ribbed Lace Patterns in Parade Daffodil from Knitpicks on U.S. Size 3's (48 sts.), one in Braided Cable with Garter Bead in Ash Essential on U.S. 0's (77 sts.) and one in the one chevron pattern with garter ridges with Sweet-Tarts Simple Stripes on 1's (66 sts.).

Now for a sad(or not so sad) sock story:
I had started a sock in Patons Grace Lavender with the 5 st. Laburnum pattern on 50 sts, size 3's, toe-up, because I was following the directions. Unfortunately, my foot will not fit in 50 sts at about 6 1/2 or so sts. to the inch nearer the heel. This is because I am one of those "Gauge Swatch? Blech.... Embleer Pattern!" sort of people and because I cannot seem to measure my foot. All I know is that a 56 stitch plain vanilla sock in Snow Patons Grace on size 2's fits my foot. When I made my bit of a gauge swatch (or did I? I don't even remember, and it was only March of '06!), I sort of pretended it was 6 sts to the inch. and proceeded. So I frogged the short row heel, which I had done against my better judgment and created a sort of half foot sock with a ruffly edge, a little similar to the front part of one of those slip on slippers with no heel. This, at first, I had no purpose for, but I am going to turn it in to a water bottle holder for carrying on walks with an I-cord strap as soon as I find my French Knitter thing (or at least I think that's what it's called...) I don't like making I-cord with dpns, but once it saved a science project, which you shall hear about later. So I am going to start anew with the other 2 balls of yarn, 2's and the 60 st version. But not yet...

Future Sock Plans:
I also have Pansy sock yarn just waiting to be made into socks. I dyed some of their Color Your Own Sock Yarn with Kool-Aid and it turned out fairly well, though not quite as I intended. This is intended to become socks, but who knows. I am wanting to try some of the Fair Isle and Mosaic sock patterns from Sensational Knitted Socks, so that might be in the future, too.

Yarn Websites:
As I said, I don't particularly like Koigu Wool's website. In fact I don't like many yarn manufaturers' websites. Why? I do not feel they are helpful. I have nothing against them, I jsut wish their website were more, um, extensive. The only website of a yarn manufaturer that I really like is that of Lion Brand, which, I think, does a good job of having patterns, yarn info, etc. And there are others that do a good job of this, that I haven't heard of or either don't visit much because I don't use their yarns.

Site Updates:
I am hoping to put up the (Nearly) Seamless Crochet Slipper Pattern and the Macreme Bag pattern on http://www.geocities.com/celitmarifiatricoter . Also: I posted a really long comment on the Yarn Harlot's question about Which Three Knitters?

Check back in a bit for info on an issue I feel deserves discussion.