A blanket, a dog (or two) and a sock

Even though I was 100% certain that I wasn’t going to do any more Girasole updates until it was completed, I find myself updating all of you when I still have 1/3 of the edging left to do (should be done by tomorrow!!!). Why? Because I am IN LOVE with this edging. Oh my goodness it is GORGEOUS. Seriously, it just makes the blanket. If I haven’t mentioned before how much I adore Jared Flood, this is a good time to say it (again? really?). Plus, being able to see the blanket in its stretched out glory (rather than constrained by a 60 inch cable) is just breathtaking. A friend actually said that she loved it so much, it gave her goosebumps – and she meant that in a good way, not in a bad, scary movie sort of way.

I did make a modification to the edging, though I’m pretty sure it was because of something *I* did wrong and not the pattern. Instead of using double yarn overs, I only used single yarn overs as the double was making huge holes that I just couldn’t figure out and looked strange. I think the single yarn over looks very nice, if I do say so myself.

The other reason I just had to do a Girasole update was to show off this picture of Hitchcock taken while I was knitting up the edging:

I think he’s telling me that while knitting is boring work, the blanket being made sure is comfy!

It really is a great blanket and is so soft and warm! Kubrick and Hitchcock both love it and are always found sleeping on it. I think this means that when this blanket leaves for its home (I’m knitting it for my wonderful mother who is a much more talented knitter than me!) I’m going to have to make another one so they’ll be able to sleep on it on the couch… not because I want one for myself, of course. 😉

I am almost done with the blanket but couldn’t wait and cast on my very first pair of socks! As previously discussed, I went with Monkey and am so glad I did! What a great pattern… not difficult to do and just beautiful! Of course I had a hell of a time with it because it’s my first sock ever and whenever I do a first of anything it just needs to give me a hard time. Always. It’s just my luck. Yes, I am SO lucky!

First off, I just need to share the gorgeous yarn I am using for this sock. It’s the Fiberphile Super Squish Sock in Raspberry Tart that I wrote about in my last post. Here are pictures of the skein and of it wound up… I think it looks absolutely gorgeous both ways (not to mention being completely squishy and oh-so-soft):

If you look carefully in the first picture you can see my new ball winder and swift in the background. I am so glad I finally got them as they are SO helpful. I can’t even imagine winding that whole skein using my knees and hands (my old method of winding – yikes!).

So I cast on with this gorgeous yarn and started soaring through the leg. I can’t believe how fast it is to knit this pattern and was just loving the stitch definition with this yarn. Not to mention the fact that the colors were looking beautiful and just showing off the pattern so well! I was happily knitting along and had done 4 repeats of the lace pattern when I realized that my work was looking a bit wonky on one side of the lace. I decided to look at the chart once more and realized that silly me was using k2tog twice to decrease instead of using k2tog and then ssk to create the nice V shape. Argh! I was so annoyed but considering I had only lost about 2 hours of work, I didn’t think much of it and just ripped back to the rib to start over. Okay, no problem, lesson learned. So I start up again, do a lace repeat and start up on the second when – wonders of wonders – this happens:

Need a better view of it? Here you go:

Yes, that’s right, the needle broke not in half, as might be expected, but in a splinter! Seriously, I have NO idea how this could have happened, but I was SO annoyed! I decided that this was all due to the fact that I bought the cheapest DPN in the store thinking to myself that all DPNs are created equal… obviously this is where I was wrong! I usually never buy the cheapest of anything – unless it’s something I don’t care about – but in this case I really thought there would be no difference. I guess you live and learn – and you get what you pay for!

This all happened on Thursday. I’ve been really sick with a horrible cold/flu (not sure what I have to tell you the truth) and didn’t want to brave the weather to get new needles from my LYS. Instead, I decided to knit my Girasole as I needed to finish it anyway (and it looks amazing, as you can see up top), and order the needles online. I went to my favorite online knitting store, Jimmy Beans Wool, and ordered the needles on Friday morning. Friday evening they e-mailed to let me know that the color I requested wasn’t available for another week and asked if I wanted to wait for them to come in. I really thought about it, but decided color wasn’t THAT important, so I chose a new color (rosewood, very nice) and e-mailed them back that night. They shipped the needles on Saturday (from Denver, Colorado) and they arrived here on Monday! That’s right, two days! This is why I love Jimmy Beans and would totally recommend them to anyone. Not only do they have awesome coupons and sales, they also have excellent customer service and very fast shipping. From what I can tell from other online stores, this is a rarity in the knitting world – everything takes SO LONG to ship! – which makes Jimmy Beans even more special to me. Oh and they always put a couple of pieces of candy in their order for you. Yum! 🙂

Anyway, all this to say, I have a small amount of a sock started and here it is for you to look at. I am absolutely in love with the colors and this yarn. I can’t wait to get back to it… of course, as soon as I’m done with the blanket!

Before I go, I just wanted to add that although my dogs do think that knitting is boring – I mean, really, what can they do with it? They aren’t allowed to play with the yarn, chew on the needles, roll all over the knitted item, or dig into it to make themselves a nice nest to sleep in. Basically, so boring all they can do is sleep on it. Now it’s even gotten worse as I started knitting these socks, which means that they can’t even sleep on it. I think they are feeling very upset about this as they were demoted to sleeping on the dog bed while I was knitting the dreaded sock:

Poor pups… what horrible lives they lead. 😉

PS: Thanks so much to Theresa and Tasha for the blog award! I’ll post about it tomorrow. 🙂