Rebellious Mushroom Hunter

I started the Swedish Fish socks using some of Cathy's stash. Already I have knit this sock up to the heel, ripped it out back to the cuff, and started it again. The fit wasn't quite right, but the ripping was worth it. I'm going to have a really cute sock.

Tosh Sock in Baltic and Warm Maize

In a burst of energy, I also finished off two pairs of socks. First pair are the Woodpile Socks using my skein of Spun Right Round in the Bug Jar color way.

The second pair are the Vanilla Latte socks in Stray Cat Socks' Blue Moon color way. This is the second time I've knit a pair of socks in this color.

After finishing the last two pairs of socks, but still making ripping decisions about the Swedish Fish, I started a new sock. I'm still deciding what pattern it will grow up to be. I was so desperate for a sock to knit that I just cast on 64 stitches and worked a 2x2 rib cuff. I figure I can find a pattern to match.

Dragonfly Fibers in the Mushroom Hunting color way

Has anyone else cast on with wild abandon? I've never cast on without a plan before and I feel like a rebel.

Trials, Tribulations, And A Lack Of Guacamole

It's been a week, let me tell you! On Monday Connor got rear ended in a three car accident. We are thankful that he wasn't hurt, the car still moves, and the guy who caused the accident took fault. Then on Wednesday we learned that we were the victims of credit card fraud. We are thankful that it was caught early, we aren't on the hook for any fraudulent charges, and the very nice customer service man had a new card sent to us faster than their usual time frame. But the worst was yet to come! Yesterday we went to Chipotle and they were out of guacamole! There is no upside to that.

Ok, all kidding aside, it's been a little rough. In between the trials, I've been doing my best to insert some fun into each day. For example, last week I learned how to film a time-lapse of myself painting. I posted it on my @audrynicklin instagram page.

A post shared by Audry (@audrynicklin) on Apr 28, 2018 at 11:55am PDT

After stressing over what new paints to get, I bought a silly amount in order to redo my travel painting palette. (As I mentioned in my previous post, my current palette won't dry, so it doesn't transport well. I've switched the travel palette from M Graham to Daniel Smith watercolors.) It all arrived and I made a new swatch rainbow.

Bottom left is the new pallet, the top right is the old

Then Connor and I went to the ocean and I challenged myself to paint (with my new palette) the seals that like to sleep under the wharf. I'm not sure how successful I was as it turns out brown seals on brown wood looks a lot like indistinguishable brown lumps. I still had fun. And better yet, I was able to figure out some things that work about my new palette and some things that need to be tweaked.

Seal or lump? In a way, seals are just brown lumps.

I've also continued to knit on my socks.

Both of these are second socks. Yay!

Even though it's been rough, I'm thankful that my creative mojo isn't gone and that I've had snippets of time to indulge my interests.

These Boots Aren't Meant For Walking

This past March was a "put one foot in front of the other" kind of month. With a combination of family health scares and a pile of difficult tests, I ended up pretty stressed out. It's taken me a week or two to start feeling better. But rather than focus on the negative, let me show off some things that helped lift me up.

1. I have made a new pair of baby booties. The last pair I made unfortunately didn't fit the recipient. After seeing the tiny baby feet in person, I decided to make up my own pattern. They look weird without feet in them, but I'm pretty sure that with small feet inside them, these new cowboy booties will look much cuter.

2. I finished embroidering the lower 48 states. What a job! I'm not anywhere close to finishing this quilt, but I feel pretty darn good about how far I've gotten. I've ordered some new embroidery floss and plan to quilt the remaining background with longitude and latitude lines. (Alaska and Hawaii will be added too!)

Toughest coastline embroider: Maryland

3. Yarn! My Plucky I ordered at Stitches West arrived. I initially felt it was too dark, but it's growing on me. Then a fantastic package from Wei Siew arrived. She sure did spoil me. Dark Harbor, Bleeting Arts, and Fiber 2 Go?! She also sent a few other unpictured goodies.

4. I finished my Groovy Socks and have cast on two new pairs. Vanilla Latte socks in Stray Cat Socks's Blue Moon color way and Woodpile socks in Spun Right Round's Bug Jar color way.

5. Just today I decided to paint a scene from the TV show Riverdale. Connor and I recently finished it and I really liked the design for Pop's Chock'lat Shoppe. 

How has life been going for all of you? Have you focused on anything to help keep you sane?

Sock Fever

I've seen people talking about a thing called "Socktober." I didn't know this existed. It sounds exciting, but honestly I don't need a specific month to motivate me to knit socks. I have a fever and the only thing that will cure it is knitting more socks!
Observe exhibit A. I have finished the socks for my mother-in-law. It's the Primavera Sock pattern knit up in Tosh Sock Shire color way.

Somebody is going to have toasty feet for Christmas

Then there are these beauties hot off the needles. I managed to finish my Halloween socks with time to spare. These are knit up with Stray Cat Socks' amazing Trick Or Treat color way.

I'm still working away on my Denature socks. This is also Stray Cat Socks, but in the Silver Star color way.

Of course getting all these socks off of the needles meant that I could treat myself to new yarn! Just kidding. I bought the yarn before I finished any socks. It may come as a surprise, but I treated myself to some more Stray Cat Socks. Left to right, the color ways are Blue Moon, Sherbet Fizz, and Hipster. Subtly hiding behind hipster is a mini skein of black to be my cuff/heel/toe for the Sherbet Fizz socks. I want them to be my CMYK socks.

Just one question. Now that my Halloween socks are done, is it too soon to work on Christmas socks?

If you guessed that this is Stray Cat Socks, then you would be right. It is the Joyeux Noel color way and a complimentary brown.

Once In A Blue Moon Socks

Any knitter will attest to the fact that they will always bring more knitting and yarn with them on vacation than they can possibly use. We all do this because we have heard the horror story of the one time a knitter didn't do that and had absolutely no knitting with them. That should not ever be allowed to happen, hence the overabundance of projects. While in New Zealand, I finished an already started pair of socks, a hat, and a whole new pair of socks. Wei Siew so sweetly gave me the yarn for this pair.

The one time I remembered to get a picture with the both of us in it. Thanks for taking the picture Eric!

A few days before leaving New Zealand, I managed to finish the pair. Yay!

The yarn is by Stray Cat Socks and is in the Blue Moon colorway.

I was quite happy to not only finish them in New Zealand, but to wear them on my last day in the country.

 Thanks for taking the pictures Connor. It was so much easier than contorting myself in order to get them.

Yarn Zealand

The other day I had a day on my own in Wellington. I took the train down and went to visit the weekend underground market. Kiwipurler had tipped me off that Helene of Happy Go Knitty would be there and I ought to go say hi. I am weak though, so a skein of the 100% BFL in the Forget Me Not color way came home with me. Whoops.

I figured out that the Wellington location of the Holland Road Yarn Company was nearby, so I headed over. At first I was just going to get wool wash. Ha! That would requite self control... and fewer yarn fumes. I skein of Ashford 12ply will become a hat that matches my wool coat. Knitsch isn't being dyed as regularly now, so when I saw these skeins of Mad Blood Stirreth, I couldn't say no.

Tash was in, so I was able to show her my Police Box Sox in person. Jenn let me try on her beautiful sweater. I was interested in knitting with the yarn it was made out of. (Anna Gratton's 4 ply) and have largely decided that the yarn is right for my future project.

Meanwhile, I made a decision on what to cast on next. The Stray Cat Socks in the Blue Moon color way seemed like the way to go. I might want more of the yarn and I thought I ought to test it out.

This also means that I finished my Yoga For Elephants socks. I'm so pleased! Just in time to warm my cold tootsies.

Mossley Latte

Earlier this month I finished another pair of socks. This pair was made with the Vanilla Latte Socks pattern. The pattern was really easy to follow and I quite like the result. The yarn was Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Silkie Socks That Rock" in the Mossley Manly color way. I loved how the yarn looked when I bought it, but I was unsure of how it would knit up. I am pleased to report that Silkie Sock base knits up beautifully. 

Scooter, as always, wanted to assist during the photo shoot. As soon as Mum sat down, he leapt into her lap. Now if only I had made a pair of matching socks for him.

All The Socks

Awhile back I said something about casting on All The Socks when I was done knitting for the book. And so I have. 

These are the Leyburn pattern. I made a pair in 2011. The pattern is a good one, so I made another pair. This pair is out of some of the yarn I got last month while I was in New Zealand: Knitsch in the Odelay colorway. 

Immediately after blocking these socks, I wound up some of the yarn I got at this year's Stitches West. This is Blue Moon Fiber's Silkie Sock in the Mossley Manly colorway. I blame Alicia on Woolen Diversions. This colorway has shown up from time to time on her blog and I desired it.

The pattern is Vanilla Latte. The pattern is good, but I am a dummy. When I put in the toe, I couldn't figure out why I had 10 more stitches on the bottom than the top. The foot of the sock also seemed a bit loose. Eventually I determined that I chosen to randomly not decrease enough stitches in the gusset. Want to guess how many stitches I was off by.

If 10 stitches is your guess, you are right. The foot of this sock has since been ripped out and reknit. I'm on the second sock now. This is the number one reason I don't do socks 2-at-a-time. I don't need to mess up a two socks at the same time.

Is anyone else knitting socks at the moment? Have you had any dumb sock moments?