WIPs, Frogging and Stash Enhancement . . .

Happy July to everyone! To my non-knitting readers, WIP = works in process; Frogging = endearing term for ripping out knitting -rippit, rippit, rippit; stash enhancement = retail yarn therapy/adding to yarn stash.

First, works-in-process . . . some time in June I purchased two beautiful hanks of Rio de la Plata sock yarn - one in colorway pointsettia and the other I can't remember. Here's the picture of my poinsettia sock. This was my first attempt at Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' short row heel and I finished it this morning. I had some unfortunate time to practice this new skill yesterday, which ended in frogging.



Now, on to a more disappointing topic. At the same time I purchased the Rio de la Plata, I purchased a beautiful ball of one of the new Tofutsies sock yarn by SWTC. This yarn, which contains a small amount of shrimp shells, is okay to knit with but tends to split a little. Not my favorite yarn of all time, but then I've not worn the socks either. So, I knit to the point where I am ready to turn the heel, and I suppose I'd been in denial, but there is some pooling going on in this sock that just should not be there. I've looked all over the web for photos of finished Tofutsies socks and not a one of them that I've found has this unfortunate pooling issue. So, I dropped by Magpie yesterday afternoon to see if they'd had any complaints about the yarn and the owners weren't there - so I'll have to follow up with them next week. Here's what I'm talking about.



To end on a more positive note, over the past couple of weeks I've purchased a few balls of sock yarn that I've only been able to see on the internet. I love to "shop" and "browse" on the internet, but most of the time I like to touch and feel the yarn before I make a purchase. Plus, I don't mind supporting my local knitting shops when I can. At Stone's Throw Artisans I picked up two balls of Opal (wool, for two pair of socks) and two balls of Steinbach Wolle Strapaz Cotton Effekt (enough for one pair of socks). On Friday night, I picked up one hank of Cherry Tree Hill in Serengeti and two balls of Online Supersocke Cotton Beach in two different colors.

Is there a socknitters anonymous?

No matter how long you've been knitting . . .

you are never immune to knitting your tail. I had to learn this the hard way and I should have learned my lesson when I made fun of my friend Doe for knitting her own tail.

Even though I've been on posting hiatus, I have finished a couple pairs of socks. Due to tendonitis in my elbow, I've unfortunately had to slow down on the emailing, surfing, knitting and blogging.

This pair of socks represents the "knitting my own tail" incident. Yes, I had to rip the sock out, cast on again and give it another go. The tail just happened to be long enough to knit a few rounds in ribbing.



I did a heel flap on these socks and I'm not so crazy about the way the colors pooled in the ankles.




Next, we have the pair of socks I literally cast on at least five times - they were too small, the yarn pattern was interfering with the liklihood of getting the second sock to match, thought I wanted to do the entire sock in ribbing and then decided on the stockinette version you see here.




I am particularly pleased with the short row heel!



Yarn for these socks is Online Supersocke, Tropic collection - don't have the ball band handy for the color number. The yarn fairies were looking over me, I ended up with two matching socks. It's a good thing I liked working with this yarn - I have three more balls in different colorways!

Until next time . . . toodles!