The Gabby Knitter

Flu round 2

The flu came to visit us for a second time this year. My son was sick with it since Monday and has been out of school all week. I took him to the doctor's yesterday and he's on some medication and is finally starting to feel a little better. I started up with it this morning so I'm going to have to take a little time off blogging.

I'll leave all with a pic of one of the two shawls I promised to show you

Agatha in DIC Classy with the Cloud Jungle Colorway. When I come back I'll have some progress pics of the Cherry shawl.

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it and Happy Weekend to those who don't!

Monkey Swap Four Q&A

Shoe size: 9

Foot length in inches: 9 1/2

Circumference: 9

Yarn Preferences

What are your favorite colors? ppurple, green,pink,blue

What color clashes with your wardrobe? orange

Do you prefer solids or variegated yarns? I like both semi-solid and variegated yarns

What are your favorite brand sock yarns? There are so many. Right now I've really been in to trying all the Andie sock dyers.

Is there a new sock yarn you really would like to try? I haven't tried Ocean Wind Knits, Tempted, or Sheep Paints.

Cookie A. Patterns

List the patterns you do not have but would like to receive: Mingus,  Felonious, Gothic Spire

Allergies

Do you have any allergies that your pal needs to know about? (animals, fiber, sensitivity to smoke etc.) No

Will you knitting be exposed to animals? Yes. I have 2 dogs, a cat, and a bunny

Will you knitting be exposed to cigarette smoke? Nope

Shipping

What country do you live in? USA

Are you willing to ship outside your country? If you really need me to I will but I would prefer to ship inside the US.

Sock Madness Round 1

I finished up my Sock Madness Zombie socks last night. I started them around 5:00 on Thursday. That's about 3 1/2 days for a pair of socks! I think that my be the fastest pair I've made to date. I used CTH Supersock and a size 1 Knitpick's Circular needle. This pattern was a lot of fun and I think it works so well with variegated yarn. Can't wait to see what round 2's sock will be.

Have a great day and I promise next post: Shawls

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Are you sick of my sock knitting yet?

The kids were sick yet again this week which is why no posts and no Whirling Wednesday again. My oldest son was sick with a fever and sore throat on Sunday and stayed home with it Monday and Tuesday. I was worried it was strep but thank the good lord it wasn't. Then my youngest started with the same fever and sore throat on Tuesday so I kept him home and today he felt better and no fever so he was able to go to school. My daughter has again lucked out again and is still in good health (fingers crossed she remains that way). The stomach flu is also going around at school and I'm hoping against hope that they don't bring that home.

Enough about sickness how about some more finished socks instead.

These were a fun and easy knit in my favorite self striping Vesper sock yarn.  The colorway is lollipop and I used a size 1 knitpicks circular needle. I finished these up a week or two ago, can't remember when exactly.

These are my finished SKP socks. I knit them with Shibui sock yarn in the mulberry. I love loved the feel of this yarn, really soft and sproingy alot like Cherry tree hill supersock and fleece artist sock yarn. The color is a bit deeper than in the picture and it also gave subtle stripes which I liked  and the pattern still came through even though you can't see it in this picture. Believe me I tried for an hour to get a decent shot of these socks but this was the best one and it still doesn't show the cool embossed diamonds down the center of the foot. Trust me they look a lot better in person.

Sock Madness begins later today. They said to think scary when choosing a yarn and since this year I decided I was going to try and knit all the socks out of yarn I already have in my stash. The darkest yarn I could come up with was this

It's Cherry tree hill and I'm hoping it will work out alright. I can't wait to find out what the pattern will be and get started.

I made progress on the Cherry shawl over the weekend and I started another shawl as well. You know because one shawl on the needles is not enough. Unless anyone else gets sick I will show you the progress on both next week and maybe Whirling Wednesday too but we'll see how it goes.

My bloglines is ridiculous right now but I hope to get caught up over the weekend and I'm behind on e-mails too so if you haven't gotten one from me just know it's coming. Hope all is well with you and have a great day!

The return of purple

Things have been a little pink around here lately but after of pink and red socks I finished last week(pictures to come in another post) I had a hankering for purple again. I joined SKP which is inspired by this years Olympics. The idea is that a pattern will be released every two months for the next year and at the end whoever has the fastest time knitting all the socks wins or you can just knit along for fun. I chose a beautiful skein of Shibui sock yarn in Mulberry that a swap pal had sent me a while back.

The pattern was released Saturday morning at by the end of the day Saturday there was several people done. I thought I was a semi fast sock knitter but I have nothing on these people. It is fun to play along though and knit the pattern. It's really hard to see but there is embossed diamonds down the front. It was a toe up pattern but they said if we wanted to knit it top down we could and we could also use whatever heel and toe we wanted so instead of the short row heel, I made a heel flap instead. Both pattern and yarn are excellent to work with.

Remember last week when I was saying I was in a sock rut and I couldn't decide between the sweater or the shawl. Well I decided to work on the Cherry Country Shawl using yarn I spun from fiber that I had bought at Rhinebeck. Well as soon as I cast on I knew this yarn was just not going to work out. It was just a bit to thick, it was sport weight/light dk. Needless to say I was a bit bummed but later I had responded to blogless Gina's comment (who was my Loopy Ewe Swap pal and has also become a great friend) and told her how I wasn't going to able to make the shawl now until I could find an appropriate yarn. Then on Friday Gina said to be on the look out for a package the following week and lo and behold

There was enough silky wool in a gorgeous shade of purple or black cherry to make the shawl and a really sweet note! There are four other skeins but by the time I had taken the picture I had already wound them up. I was overwhelmed and touched by her generosity.This is really going to make a special shawl. Thanks again Gina!

As you can see I've already gotten started. I'd actually be a little further along but yesterday I had to rip the whole thing out due to an error on my part not the patterns. I have two more rows to go and then I get to start the twisted diamonds section.

That's all the purple for today. I hope you all have a great night and (because this will be my last post until next week) a great weekend!