Burning the midnight oil

I just finished felting the clog I made for Michael for St. Nicholas Day and man is it ever cute. I'm also making him a pair of socks to go in it (he has been asking about them since I told him this particular yarn was for socks for him). The one I did up back in October was a bit too snug and the gauge was too tight for the yarn. I went up a needle size and it seems to be doing the trick. Rather than doing my normal short-row heel, I've decided on an afterthought heel - since this is a self striping yarn, I figure it will look nicer and it'll give me a bit more room to accommodate his high instep (wonder where he gets that from?). I'm about an inch into the cuff ribbing, but it's feeling a bit too tight for my taste so I'm probably going to frog back and re-do it on smaller needles. If I have any of the yarn left overs, I'm going to make him a korknisser to go in there as well.

Lots of pics coming soon - I'll probably do a whole update later this week with all the FO's.

Off to bed!

On the needles today...

Of course I've decided we are going to celebrate St. Nicholas Day a mere three days beforehand, and of course Michael will need his very own felted, curly-toed clog to hold his little treats in. Unfortunately, there really is no way I'll be able to get an actual pattern written in time for it to be of any use to anyone - it's based off of another pattern that I wrote a few years back and there is more that I want to do with it, so next year for sure. I'm hoping to get some stuff posted up on Knitty Keen in the next week - free patterns that I've been sitting on for a while and my BSJ striping template (which I'll cross-post over at Zimmermaniacs as well). The brain, as always, is afire with ideas but the body demands rest and the family demands attention so things will continue to progress slowly but surely. Since John is off on Thursday and I'm finally going to get my hair cut, I'm thinking of settling down with the laptop somewhere that morning and doing all of the pattern writing I've been promising for ages.

Ah well, a clog must be knit!

P.S. - I only have 1/3 a pattern repeat and 10 rounds of single rib to do and I'm DONE the green scaly socks - YAY!

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The knitting is done on the clog - all that's left is the felting!

Crafts Update

Much sock knitting has been happening (as well as much frogging and gnashing of teeth). Here's what's doing - the Green Scaly Socks will be getting their own post.

Socks by Numbers

I'm testing out my Socks by Numbers pattern on Michael with some Regia I picked up last week at Tangled Web. I was a little too conservative in my numbers and while the socks fit, they *just* fit, so I'm going to re-work things a bit and start over. I'm hoping to get them done by the end of the weekend.

Step Socks

Now I just have to get the second one done.

Felted Messenger Bag
I finally did the finishing work on this today and it has been felted. Once it dries, I'll be lining it with some denim salvaged from an old skirt and some webbing for a shoulder strap. Here are the before pics:





Mystery Projects
Wouldn't you like to know. There are many and they are progressing nicely.

Snazzy Pants Longies
Just one leg left to go...


Once I get the socks out of my system, I'm going to plow through my WIP's to upgrade them to FO status - not something for the faint of heart.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Nothing quite like an A-Team reference ;)

I've had an idea burning in my brain for the past 36 hours and I just finished the first prototype which turned out surprisingly well. I've made a few changes and I'm getting ready to cast-on for version 1.1. Of course, I have at least a half-dozen other projects waiting to be finished (one just needs buttons sewn on), but who can work when their brain is on fire? I'm not sure what I'm doing with it yet, so if you want to see pics, email me.

Inspiration calls...