My first Monkeys!

I realized that I knit this one so quick that I didn’t even post a WIP picture. This weekend I finished my first Monkey socks! This is going to a friend that I grew up with. Her birthday is on the 30th (ack!) and I finished these exactly on her birthday so they will be in the mail soon. I love, love, love the brightness of these socks and I’m hoping that it will help her get through the rainy days in Seattle. I made them a little short because I don’t think she’s a person to wear very high socks. We both have “ample” (ahem!) calves so things just don’t stay up very well. I like them so much that I think I may knit another pair (even shorter) for myself with the leftover yarn. I think I will change the heel to be a slipped stitch heel since I don’t like the way the stockinette heel looks so plain.

Pattern: Monkey by CookieA (knitty.com)
Yarn: Wollmeise sock yarn Sonne colorway
Started: April 24, 2007
Completed: April 30, 2007
Size/Needles: One size (64 sts), US2
Pattern notes: I did 4 pattern repeats for the cuff, instead of the 6.

This is for a friend’s birthday. I really, really love the extremely bright colors. It is so bright that my camera can’t quite capture it!

Comments (5)

Bottom of foot Grasshopper how I love thee! This is a really fast knit. I only did one increase section on the leg because I don’t like socks too high. Even then it still is kinda long (for me) so it slouches a bit. But still, I’m happy with the way it pooled into nice stripes and I’m in love with the color. If I had to do it again, I would either do the smaller size or use size US1 needles and not even do the increases and keep it to ankle socks.

Comments (9)

I’m done, done, done!!! Don’t you just love the color? View of the heel Finished these for my secret pal! Woo hoo! It was very tedious to complete, not because the pattern was hard, but because it just took a long time to knit! But I’m glad I did it and I hope that it fits my SP. Keep your fingers crossed! Since the socks don’t fit me, I had to get my neighbor to model them for me. On the second sock, I was able to do the yarn wraps without a cable needle by accident. I was at stitch n bitch and forgot my cable needle and no one else had one. So I just slipped the stitches back and forth between needles. It was slow at first but after awhile I got the hang of it and it may have been faster than using a cable needle. I don’t think I will be doing this one again anytime soon. I love everything about it but I was really needing some quick knits in between. And since I am a one or two project gal, it was really taking a LONG time and I was fantasizing about all these other projects I could be knitting. Pattern: Gothic Spire by CookieA Yarn: Wollmeise sock yarn in Gewitterhimmel Needles: Knit Picks circs US2 (magic loop) Started: March 30, 2007 Completed: April 24, 2007

Comments (7)

Just wanted to chime in here and let you know that I couldn’t stand it and cast on the STR yarn that I got for the April kit. Let me just say…it…is……..HAWESOME! I wouldn’t normally buy this yarn (I’m a 100% merino gal) and I probably wouldn’t make this pattern, but the combination…it’s addictive! The silk adds a nice shimmer when knitted up. The cast on was kind of weird, or at least I haven’t done it that way before, but ooh, I just love it so far!!! Just a warning (and spoiler)!

Comments (10)

Gifts from elem

My first STR package - Walking on the Wild Tide!

Postcard from my SP10

Apart from the fun giveaway that I had, I had a semi-happy birthday. The first wee hours of my birthday were maddening. I spent 5 hours untangling/balling up a skein of Wollmeise yarn. I have balled up many of her skeins before with no problem. I don’t know what the deal was with that one. 5 FREAKING HOURS!!!! The other thing that made it bad was that I got sick. I had bronchitis last week and have been taking antibiotics for that, but then on top of that, I get a cold. Sucks! Michael (who is sick as well) took me out to dinner anyways and we tried to make the best of it.

I did get some awesome gifts and well wishes from some unexpected people. My sister sent me a box full of snacks plus a gift certificate to blue moon (woohoo!). I haven’t decided which one to get, and I’m also waiting to get my 10% coupon to “enhance” my purchase. Michael got me the Rockin’ sock club membership as well as a Wollmeise buying spree and a new monitor (desperately needed). Elemmaciltur got me a knitting stitch dictionary (always wanted one of these) in German because I mentioned that one of the areas I wanted to improve my German in is knitting. He also made me a sweet arigumi arigurumi amigurumi. I named her “cupcake” since he put her in a little cupcake pastry cup. I was really surprised that he remembered and even brought it to me when I wasn’t feeling too well. My neighbor Riki baked me a käsekuchen and promised a delicious stir-fry dinner next week! yummmmm…. Of course Ingrid sent me that great package and it’s driving me nuts trying to decide on what to make with that yummy yarn. The Wollmeise herself sent me a nice e-card (WOW!), my cousins Staci and Amy sent me one as well and friends Sarah and Shari and brother-in-law Denver sent me emails. It’s so nice when people remember out of the blue! Thanks everyone!

I also wanted to mention that I received a postcard from Spain from my SP10 pal last week. I was a bad blogger and forgot. As Miss Violet would say “bad blogger, no cookie!” Sorry about that!!! It was so thoughtful of her to write to me while she was on vacation and look at those strange clay statues. Must’ve been amazing to see in person!

On the knitting front, I received my very first Rockin’ Sock Club package!!! I was hoping to get the February one first, but I ended up getting the April one. It’s funny because the tag says that it’s 89% merino and 19% silk. Huh? I’m guessing it’s 81% merino and 19% silk. Or maybe it’s 89% merino and 11% silk. Either way, it is really nice and soft yarn, I am so excited to cast on NOW! I promised myself that I would finish the Gothic Spires first and whadda-ya-know, I got them done tonight! I also started working on Monkey Socks by CookieA in Wollmeise Sonne colorway for a friend who has postpartum depression. I thought the bright colors in the colorway would cheer her up whenever she looked at them. The colors are not one that she would normally pick, but I’m hoping that this pair will be special. Her birthday is coming up (a little too soon though), so it’s perfect timing. I won’t get them to her before then, but within a couple of weeks.

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Thanks for all of your entries! There were some great responses and blogs to peruse. I definitely won’t run out of reading material! To do this drawing, I printed out everyone’s entries, put them in a bag and my husband drew the names. He was really happy that he could participate in this somehow (the most important part!). And now….the winners:

Wollmeise superwash sock yarn (am Kalten Polar colorway): sara

Wollmeise worsted weight yarn (Drachenblut colorway): cauchy09 and kathy

Congratulations winners! I will send you an email to get your info so I can send these off to you. I had so much fun doing this giveaway that I will probably do another one in a couple of months. Stay tuned. I’ll have to think of a good question to ask.

Comments (4)

The Wollmeise and Victor having a serious yarn discussion Day 1 purchases (excluding worsted weight) Day 2 purchases (excluding worsted weights) Fabz excited to fondle all this yarn This past Friday, my friend elem and I went to the Sauerlach Frühlingstage to see the Wollmeise and ultimately buy lots of yarn. Since her yarn is all hand dyed, every skein is different. Also, fondling her yarn turns a normal knitter into a frantic-must-buy-every-colorway consumer. It was fun to hang out with elem for the morning and we came home with a healthy amount of wool. I bought 7 colored skeins, 2 uncolored skeins, and 2 worsted weights. Elem bought 6. The Wollmeise (Claudia) is the nicest person, and it was good to finally meet her. On Saturday, a flickr friend Fabz, came from Berlin to meet the Wollmeise as well. I’m not one to turn down fondling wollmeise yarns, so I told Fabz that I would go Saturday as well. And of course Elem is like me so we all went together. There was supposed to be a few other people but for some reason or another couldn’t make it. That’s ok, more wool for us!!! Let me just say now that Fabz is an amazing person, she has accomplished so much and is really smart, talented and famous in the internet world. But what made her a winner in my book is that in the first 10 minutes of meeting her, she gave me gifts of sock yarn and lip balm from the US!!! Now, how can you NOT like someone who bears gifts??? And fabulous ones at that! Thanks, Fabz! At the market, she went crazy and grabbed like 10 skeins in just minutes. It was so fun to watch her, exactly how we were the day before! I thought I wasn&#