Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Shock Wave knit pattern

Our beloved enabler Sherri, is encouraging sock knitters to shake things up and knit either a Frank or a Martha type of sock. I took that to heart and found some yarn in a color that's not really me. I'm more of a fire-engine red kind of gal, who drives a '79 Black Stingray Corvette with glass T-Tops, if you know what I mean. Yes, I really have one.

I do have a problem with this idea. I just can't decide whether I'm a Frank or a Martha in my socks. I'm very conservative in my lifestyle, thoughts and wardrobe with the exception of my vehicle of choice and my socks, though I'm really a Frank in my personality. So is this a Frank sock for the Martha in me? Or are they a Martha sock for the Frank in me? Somebody help me. I'm so confused:D  What I do know is that I knit these for me. Meet Shock Wave.
free shock wave knit pattern
Please don't email me asking for the pattern because I'm going to give you the seriously abbreviated version. I don't have the patience to write a proper pattern. This is what I call a Burger King pattern - cause you can "Have it your way". Are you ready?

Yarn of your choice and needles to suit your yarn. Aim for 8 stitches per inch - stockinette stitch knit in the round. The pattern creates a bias fabric and is rather stretchy. Be aware!

This is sized for a small or medium sock. If you desire a larger sock add 8 stitches and adjust the pattern accordingly.

Cast on 56 shock wave stitches and knit either a 1x1 rib or a 2x2 rib till it's as long as you like, or until you are sick of it. Whichever comes first. Remember, these are your socks!

Commence stitch pattern.

Row 1: Knit

Row 2:  *K3, K2TG, K3, M1 repeat

Row 3: Knit

Row 4:  *K3, K2TG, K3, M1 repeat

Rows 5: Knit

Row 6:  *K3, K2TG, K3, M1 repeat

Row 7: Knit

Row 8:  *M1, K3, K2TG, K3, repeat

Row 9: Knit

Row 10:  *M1, K3, K2TG, K3, repeat

Row 11: Knit

Row 12:  *M1, K3, K2TG, K3, repeat

Repeat rows 1-12 for as long as you like. Ending on a knit row.

Make sure the pattern is evenly centered over the instep. Knit the heel flap of your choice - stockinette, reinforced, or Eye of Partridge. Knit the heel flap over 28 stitches and end when you have 14 slipped stitches on either side of the flap.

Turn the heel, with whatever heel turn suits you.

For the gusset: Pick up 14 stitches on either side of the heel flap.

Decrease all those annoying gusset stitches until you have 56 stitches again. Keeping "in pattern" on the instep with a minor adjustment to the stitch pattern instep as follows:

Rows 2, 4, 6 *K3, K2TG, K3, M1 repeat. You will end with Knit 4

Rows, 8, 10, 12 *M1, K3, K2TG, K3, repeat. You will end with Knit 2, K2TG

Knit the instep to your desired length. End on a knit row.

Start toe decreases.Knit the toe decreases until you have 16 stitches left. Break yarn and graft the remaining stitches. Weave in all tails. Make another sock.

If your smart you will cast on the for the first sock and knit the cuff then put it down and cast on for the second sock. This will prevent the dreaded SSS, aka The accursed Second Sock Syndrome.

Now off you go and bend some color.
free shock wave knit pattern

Knit a beautiful lace shawl

 With my New Year's resolutions still fresh in my mind, I gathered my courage and knit a lace shawl this past week. I love it. It's a gift for my Mom. Do you think she will like it?
Knit a beautiful lace shawl
The pattern details:
Knit a beautiful lace shawl pattern
Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl - designed for beginners. Prefectly written and she included lots of helpful information to help a novice along.

Yarn: Knit Picks - Elegance, color-way Barn Red. 3 skeins, with some leftover. The yarn is a little splity but has a beautiful sheen and a very soft hand.

Knit in 3 days. Thursday night to Saturday afternoon.

Modifications: I used mirror image decreases. Pure picky-ness on my part. I also employed the Russian Join method for the first time. It worked splendidly.

This is truly a great "first time" pattern for lace. However, it was not until the 7th repeat that things started to gel and it began to make sense to me. (I'm a little slow sometimes.) Then I was off like a rocket. There are a few mistakes which I did manged to hide rather well. Now all I need is a gold shawl pin in the shape of a heart. The search is on.

Pocket Knitting

Dishcloths have rapidly become my favorite portable item to knit - super fast, requires minimal mental acuity and tucks to nicely in my favorite purse. "Pocket Knitting" is what I've dubbed these little gems.

Each week I have the distinct privilege of sitting in the cafeteria at the high school, and watching the little darlings heathens, scarf down their lunch in the most obnoxious manner possible and fly back out the door. During this time I knit dishcloths. It makes the duty almost tolerable. These simple knits permit me to keep my eyes on those delightful teens terrors that I have come to adore:D

Last week I was reading EZ, and I came across the Square Baby Blanket pattern in her book and thought - How would it look in a variegated dishcloth yarn. I gave it a test spin and was pleased with the results.
knitting dishcloths patterns 2
I liked it so much I made 3 more.
knitting dishcloths patterns
The yellow one was presented to a teacher whose birthday was a few days ago and she promptly put in a request for a few more. To which I graciously obliged. Someone please smack me - I'm doing it again.

Though I must admit that I'm rather embarrassed to be knitting dishcloths for all the world to see. They think I'm just a little touched in the head. I would rather be caught knitting something elegant or sophisticated in the public eye:D

For those of you who would like whip up a few I wrote a pattern for you to try. Give it a whirl and let me know what you think.

Knitting on the road ...^^

This morning TBC choose to skip church. Yes, I know we are truly wicked. Instead he suggested a road trip to Prescott. It has a decent mall that has a very large book store that lures us in occasionally. Today was that day. It takes two hours of driving time to get there and my resolve to let my wrists rest crumbled. What else are you suppose to do on a long drive. So I brought my yarn and kit with me. One the way I up I knit the first toe and on the way back the second one was born.
Knitting on the road
I perused the knitting section for quite a long time but found nothing that shouted out "Buy Me". Hoping my luck would improve I went to the magazine rack and picked up the latest Interweave Knits! Next stop for me was a craft store and I found a nice little box for knitting notions. This would be perfect for any future road trips and vacations. Yeah! I also found a crochet sock booklet for a co-worker. She loves the hook and I thought she might like to give socks a go!
learn to crochet socks
RB asked if we could go to WAL-MART. He feels the need to visit every one we can find. Don't ask. It's beyond me. So off we went and as we were leaving I spied this. Good thing I had a camera!

And for those of you who always wanted to know what Arizona really looks like, this ones for you.
Arizona really
Hope your weekend was as fun as mine:)

The power of one woman!

I've been lurking at the Harlots blog with breathless anticipation since the 25th for news. Did she finish the sweater. She just had to finish, after all she started this insanity. Though I did have my doubts after reading her last post on the 25th. I was so worried that our great and inspiring leader of the knitting world would leave without a precious medal. That would be more than my heart could take. But today she calmed my fears and revealed her completed sweater. With a sigh of relief and shouts of joy I chanted "she did it, she did it! Our awe inspiring Queen has completed the course and won a gold!"

Shortly after her idea hit blog land the Knitting Olympics found its way into the newspapers, magazines, web casts and National Public Radio! Over 4,000 knitters caught the vision, dared to dream and created projects to challenge their own creativity. Almost overnight knitting blog teams seemed to form, complete with team captains. Teams of specific projects, countries of every origin could be found including a few multi-cultural teams. It was a glorious thing to behold. Race, creed or color didn't matter. People simply banned together with only one goal in mind. Knit something challenging. So many of chose to knit our projects for charity, others knitted for loved ones and some choose to knit for themselves.

During our own unique Olympics we encountered the pitfalls of life. One member encountered bereavement. For others illness took its toll creating many downed knitters. Some knitters had to completely frog their work due to technical difficulties and sadly left the arena. It broke my heart. Work also took our time. Laundry and housework was lost in the knitting frenzy. Some the took sick days to help the project along. Items were knitted on subways, buses, trains, planes and cars. You could find knitters in strange places like grocery stores, bank lobby's and in kitchens while preparing dinner. Every minute of each 24 hour day you could find someone knitting for the gold. So many of us woke from our slumber with sore wrists, elbows and shoulders. Several of us were tagged by reporters and shared the interviews. We ate more chocolate than normal. We cried. We frogged. We re-wrote patterns. We laughed, lost sleep and encouraged our knitting brothers and sisters along the way. But knit on we did. And we grew and learned much. It's an experience that we will never forget. Some day our great grand children will tell tales of the 2006 Knitting Olympics.

I'm sad to see all the madness end. I found so many new and interesting blogs to read and made a few friends along the way. But what I will miss is watching people of all races unite with a common goal. All of this came from a woman who has a passionate heart. If only others would learn this lesson and do likewise.

About

I've made the switch to a more user friendly blog. Normally, I'm frugal but this is worth it. So what do you thing about my new blog?

Yeah! I found the sock yarn for my pal and a pattern that will complement the yarn. I knitted a sample today and the cadence is enjoyable and will be easy to execute. Now all I have to do is order the yarn and patiently wait for the snail mail treasure to arrive.

Today, I've been working on knitted "toe up designs" and have created the Ballerina toe, the French cross toe, the rounded toe, the star toe and the banded toe. Each toe is a mimick of it's toe down version. These toes were inspired by the book Knitting Vintage Socks from Nancy Bush. My preferance is to knit from the toe up. So I reversed enginered each toe. I'm sure someone has invented all of them. As of this time I have not found anything like them on the web. So they are new to me :0) I will post pictures of each with a working pattern soon.

My Beloved Commander is well again. This is a good thing. To celebrate we will go to Wood's Canyon Lake, after church this Sunday. We'll let the kids fish and sit in the sunlight and read. What a restful day that will be.

On The Home Front

Hello Ladies,

It's good to be back in blog land. This week seemed to fly by and before I knew it was Friday. I like Fridays at 4:00 p.m. I completely enjoy leaving the ringing phone behind and go to the peace of my own home.

Most of this week I practiced knitting technique. (leaving my Ocean Blue Sock sadly sitting on their needles) Primarily the tubular bind-off. I finally have gotten that mastered. Yeah! I generally work toe-up sock and wanted a nice finish for my sock pal. The post man was kind enough to bring my yarn for Holiday Knits. It was ordered from Happy Trails Yarn. Enough for 2 pairs. I can hardly wait to get my fingers and needles into it. It's beautiful. By the way the Ocean Blue socks are done as of 2 p.m. today. Another finished object:)

This Thanksgiving it will be just the 3 of us plus DS best friend. Turkey Scallopinne will adorn our table. A turkey will be too much this year. The Christmas decorations will be brought down from the attic and decorating will begin again. When the house is brought to it's complete Christmas Glory an old holiday movie will play and then I can settle in for some sock knitting. Without massive amounts of family around there will be plenty of knitting for me!

Sock Knitting Patterns - Violet soft yarn

Blue Trails Sock Yarn 
Look at what the wonderful post man brought last week. This is the Happy Trails Sock Yarn. The color way is Violet. And there's enough for two pairs of socks. Lucky me and my sock pal. This yarn is so soft and a pleasure to work with. Not a split in sight. I only hope they wear and wash well.

Sock Knitting Patterns  - Violet soft yarn

Thursday I spent time finding the gauge and deciding on a subtle rib pattern. By Friday morning the socks were started, using my ballerina toe up method. Saturday we went to the Valley (Phoenix) for some shopping and took the kids to the Salt River for a nice walk about. So there was minimal knitting for me. The roads are too twisty for Photo_112705_001_2knitting in the car. But today I’ve turned both heels. I should have these beauties done by Saturday at the latest. I’ve decided on the name for them. But you will have to wait until their finished!
sock knitting patterns
It’s been a great Holiday weekend here. I hope that all of you have had the same. P.S A big thank you to my Beloved Commander for the use of his palm pilot and lap top.