Woolly Boully is now up at the Loopy Ewe!

Sheri has my Woolly Boully yarn up at the Loopy Ewe. (There was a sneak-up last night.) Stop by if you have a minute. As of this blog post, five colorways have already sold out!


Now that the yarn is up on Sheri's site, I can show you my yarn in color.

An embarrassing realization: my camera is on its way out apparently. It's not taking good photos anymore. I didn't know that digital cameras had these abrupt endings until a friend of mine told me. She then pulled out her 7 megapixel camera and showed me the lovely photos she had taken. I went to price new cameras and was so embarrassed to know that 7 megapixels is the norm! I thought 3 was. I thought 7s were so expensive, but now they are priced like the old 3s. And, they now have rechargeable batteries! I guess I don't keep up with consumer goods very well.

Contest Update:

April's winner was Leslie of the Silver Fork Saga. Leslie will receive two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepard Sport in the watercolor colorway as well as The Sock Journal: Knit the Year in Socks. Congrats, Leslie!

We've also received lots and lots of squares from the following (blogless) ladies: Marylou B. sent in 20 squares; L.M. B. sent 40 (!) squares; Rosemarie V. made 20 squares; Geri T. made an afghan and a baby blanket; Jackie F. made a baby blanket; and Aunt G's sister Pat made a baby blanket. Mom J has also made quite a few items for the drive as well.

We got more squares from Jody, two from Gingersnaps with Tea, and two from Aileen. Gingersnaps with Tea made her squares for Aunt Betty (a beautiful basket weave square in pima cotton) and Uncle Doug (a wool blend that's big and burly like her Uncle Doug). Thanks so much, ladies!


The contest is almost over. If you want to join in the blanket drive, please have your items postmarked by June 15. At the end of June, I'll be drawing May's and June's winners and also the winners of all the other items we have to give away. There are books, needles, and, yes, yarn, including a ball of Trekking 126. Some of you donated prizes, and we are very grateful to you.

Spinning

I finished spinning and plying my Spunky Eclectic roving. It was a crazy spinning experience. Some of my singles were so overspun and some underspun.


I have to say that it looks better after being plied. I've been carrying this skein around the house as if it were a little baby. I know it's ugly, but it's mine.

I finished my Caterpillar socks. They are made in my favorite good ole stockinette pattern. I must have had a difficult month: the tension on the second sock is unbelievable tight.


I've never had this happen to me and my socks before. One sock is tight and the other loose. Good thing I made them for myself.

Going to Texas

I'll be in Texas until mid-June. I'm going to make my father a special Father's Day present with a new colorway that I made just for my father. It's called Fishing With My Father. (In the photograph below, it's the skein in the foreground. The colorway in the background is Strawberry Moon of June, which already sold out at the Loopy Ewe.)


I wanted to make a sock yarn that wasn't overtly girlie, but I also wanted to make it special. When I was a little girl, my family and I always, always went fishing. I practically grew up on lakes and at the Texas coast. My father has size 14 feet.

p.s. While I'm in Texas, I won't be updating my blog much, and there will be very little in way of photos. The internet connection there is slow, slow. I promise to get a new camera soon, however!

Slow & Steady

It's finally spring here in Brooklyn. I had some orange tulips I wanted to photograph for you, but alas, they curled up and died. It seems as if it just gets harder and harder to find hardy flowers at these Brooklyn "bodegas."

So, instead, I'll give you a sneak peak of what I've been up to. I got more dyeing supplies last week and can now do bigger batches. From left to right are Kelp Seahorse, Lotus Blooms, Wisteria, and Brooklyn Candy. I have more colorways to do before shipping this order off to the Loopy Ewe.

I finally found a simple way to twist my yarn into hanks. It took weeks of practice. I know it sounds silly and perhaps every knitter should just know how to twist a skein of yarn into a hank, but it took a lot of tries for me to be able to do it without blinking. And I'm very particular about my hanks; if a strand of yarn looks off, I can't stand it and will do it again. Now I can get my hanks to look pleasing to me on the first try.

Apparently the Loopy Ewe had so much traffic yesterday that the website kind of freaked out. Leave it to sock knitters and their yarn addiction to bring a site down.

After this order, I'll start a smaller order for The Yarn Grove. I want to maintain some business on etsy as I do like dealing with sock knitters and enjoy having the personal interaction with them, so hopefully I'll be able to do a shop update after these two wholesale orders.

Ever want something so badly?

I told myself to wait two weeks. If I still must have it in two weeks, then it's mine.


I'm working on these socks right now. The yarn is Opal Rainforest II in the Caterpillar colorway. I just love caterpillars and pupas and cocoons and butterflies and moths. I really do. So I couldn't resist this yarn.

I've also started a Woolly Boully Google group to send out notifications of yarn news and shop updates. You can sign up here.

Oh, and my prospectus will officially be turned in next week. That, my dear friends, was no small feat. I treated myself by buying a paper shredder. Strange, I know, but I really really wanted one.

p.s. Is it just me? Or are photographs uploaded to Blogger blurry? My photographs look great over at Flickr, but they look awful on my blog. Humpf.

Red Robin Socks Done; Lots of Yarn; More Squares and Blankets

I finished my Red Robin socks about a week and a half ago. A friend of mine emailed to say, "Hey, you haven't updated your knitting blog in a while. It's not like you. Is something wrong?"


It seems like it must be the time of the semester. Everything seems to need to get done all at once. It doesn't help that the weather has been so eerie and for so long now--nothing but dark clouds and the confusion of trees and birds. My living room ceiling had a putrid leak, I had deadlines, and I had a family affair that scared me. (It's okay--I'm just not ready to talk about it yet.) It's no wonder that I feel the way I do, slightly scattered and anxious.


Here are the specs for my Red Robin socks:

Yarn: Woolly Boully Red Robin: Bird, Nest, & Eggs
Needles: size 1 Crystal Palace dpns
Pattern: plain ole stockinette over 60 stitches, 2x2 2" cuff, heel flap, and decreased toe

I love, love, love these socks. I don't want to toot my own horn, but working with this yarn was dreamy, delightful. I could not put these socks down. All I wanted to do was knit and knit and knit these. I'm sorry that they knitted up so quickly.


Say, see this pile of Wisteria yarn? Woolly Boully got its first wholesale order. I just about flipped out. It was the same feeling I got when I had my first poem accepted for a journal, the same feeling I got when I heard my first book was getting published, the same feeling I got whenever something absolutely wonderful and unexpected happened. I have a lot more yarn to dye before I can ship this order on over to the Loopy Ewe. Oh, yes, the Loopy Ewe! And there is another wholesale order that I'll start on after that, but I'll give more details about this in another post.

I'm keeping whatever yarns are listed in my etsy shop at $21. Any new yarns will increase in price to $23, and I probably won't be able to do a shop update for about two months. So if you see something you like, now would be a great time to buy!


Jody, who was March's prize winner, made these three (!) baby blankets.

She also made these seven, bright, happy squares.

And my friend Joanna, who has just learned how to knit, made these squares.


Joanna kept apologizing for her knitting, yet she is knitting beautifully for just beginning. Her first project was a ribbed scarf. Great day! It took me forever to learn how to knit correctly and then another forever to learn how to purl and then another forever to do both with some ease. You're knitting looks wonderful, Joanna!

Since it looks as if I'm going to be busy dyeing up a storm, writing the ole dissertation, and finishing that 250+ page book I started two summers ago, I think I should make June 15 the deadline for getting in squares, afghans, and blankets for the drive. If you still want to participate, go here for details. Thanks so much to everyone for their support!

Red Robin Socks; Dance Dance Revolution Socks; A Square and an Afghan; A Lovely Surprise

Red Robin Socks


When I first started my Red Robin sock, I just couldn't put it down. Perhaps I was so delighted in working with something that I made, or maybe it was the Crystal Palace dpns. I just loved making this sock.


Dance Dance Revolution Socks

I made the cuff of the Red Robin sock, and then I forced myself to finish my "Dance Dance Revolution" socks for March's Socktopia.



Here are the specs for these socks:

Yarn: Yarn Pirate's "Culture Club"
Pattern: Modified version of the RPM Socks
Two inch cuff over 64 stitches on size 0 dpns.
RMP pattern for 3.5 inches on the leg over 63 inches
Switch to stockinette for 1.5 inches
Heel flap and gusset, decreasing to 64 stitches

The heels and toes are made of good ole Opal black sock yarn. The record is actually a classical recording that I found on the curb one garbage day.

A Square & an Afghan


I continue to be amazed by how generous knitters are. Larissa of Stitch Marker made this beautiful square using her leftover Socks that Rock yarn. I haven't ever seen this yarn in the flesh, so to speak, so it was a real treat to get some eye candy. It's such a beautiful square, Larissa, and I know it was hard for you to give up. Thank you so much. It's gorgeous!


Leslie of The Silver Fork Saga sent in an beautiful afghan. Wow! I'm amazed at her crochet skills and her ability to make something like this. Leslie made this afghan in memory of her grandfather, Aubrey Vernon. In addition to sending in the afghan, she also sent me a bag of chocolate (!) and a prize contribution, which is the sock yarn you're seeing in the picture. Thank you so much, Leslie. You are so thoughtful!

A Lovely Surprise

My doorbell rang this week. I got a package with this sweet, little card:


In case the photo is blurry, the note says, "Jenny, Congratulations on the successful launch of Woolly Boully. Enjoy the bag. I thought it would go nicely with your Neapolitan yarn! Love, Mom J."


The package contained the best tote ever! I got a Lexie Barnes Mezzo tote in Bubblegum. I've already loaded it up. Thanks so much, Mom J! I love how the tote's straps are non-slip. I mean, they really don't slip. With so much pockets and a magnetic closure, this tote makes for a great knitting bag and purse. I love it.

p.s. Thanks, ADD Knitter, for pointing out that I forgot to post the picture of the bag! Oops!

Box-of-Chocolate Socks; More Squares; In Other News

Box-of-Chocolate Socks


Today looks dreadful and snow-threatened. It was sunny and warm just a few hours ago. I've been so busy these last few weeks that I've had little time to update my blog. Of course, I'm never too busy to knit, so I do have a finished object.

These are my second socks for February's Socktopia. The theme for this pair is "life is like a box of chocolates." I wanted to work with a pattern that might suggest little chocolate treats, so I chose a baby rib from Sensational Knitted Socks.



Box-of-Chocolate socks:
Yarn: Spunky Eclectic Napoleon
Pattern: 2x2 2" cuff over 64 stitches on size 1 dpns, leg and foot done in a baby (mock) rib
Timeline: cast on February 12 and finished on February 24
Recipient: these socks are for me

I'm not sure if the pooling was caused by the baby rib pattern or the yarn itself, but I really loved this yarn and don't really mind the pooling. Spunky Eclectic's yarn is superbly fluffy & springy.

More Squares


Natalie of Mommy, Look What I Made sent in two squares, one in memory of Virginia Nell Strong and one in memory of C. Bradley Mulholland, who passed away last week. Thank you so much, Natalie. Your squares are beautiful, and I'm happy that you found some comfort in making them. Your notes really touched me. Thank you.

In Other News

I finally got my hair cut after seven months. The last time I had it cut was this summer at my cousin's salon in Bangkok. I got a curly girl cut, and I loved loved loved it. I will never go straight again.

Manly and I get to go to Atlanta on Thursday for a conference. Perhaps one day there will be conference in some city that's actually romantic.

I live on a block of brownstones. This means that there is always some construction or renovation being done and that there are always strange vans and men cussing on their cell phones and spitting. I suppose this is part of the charm of brownstone living?

Happy Valentine's Day

This Valentine's Day isn't at all romantic; it's windy and the sky is raining ice. Suddenly I regret not buying much of anything in the way of groceries last night. Seeing Manly leave to work today, I thought to myself, Manly needs a hat. And suddenly, I remembered a skein of Lamb's Pride Bulky I bought in November, how I planned a Valentine's Day hat for him and never did.

I finished my Kool-Aid socks over the weekend. I washed them in lavender wool soap and a bit of coconut scented conditioner. They smell very happy. These are my "Bed of Roses" socks for Socktopia. There are reds and pinks and whites and yellows, and why, yes, I do believe there are blue roses these days.


I was pleased with how the colors didn't pool and seemed to distribute well throughout the different sections of the sock.

Bed of Roses/Kool-Aid socks:
Yarn: Knit Picks Bare 100% merino, fingering weight
Pattern: Astrid's Twirls (modifications: size 1 dpns, cast on 66 stitches then decreased to 60 after gusset)
Timeline: cast on January 22 and finished on February 11
Recipient: these socks are for me

I've been toying with the idea of trying a dyeing enterprise to explore my love of sock yarn and colors and to also help the bank account. It's an idea I've had for a long time, and I think I should stop putting it off. So I'm placing an order soon for some professional dyes and sock yarn. Now I just need to think of a cute name for an etsy shop.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all!

Love,
Lone Knitter

p.s. I'll be playing around with my blog template over the next few days. I've been wanting a "cleaner" look to my blog & figure that customizing it and upgrading it to the new blogger would be a good opportunity to change my blog. We'll see how it goes.

A Square for Stitch Marker; Lucia Socks; More Knitterly Gifts; Contest Prizes Update

A Square for Stitch Marker


Knitting a square is really a pleasant delight after fudging with socks for so long. There's something delicate and surprising yet ordinary and extraordinary about a knitted square. This square was made for Stitch Marker's Test- Along KAL. I followed her pattern exactly using Knit Picks Sock Garden in the Daffodil colorway (discontinued). As you all may know, I absolutely adore this colorway for the childhood memories it evokes. This yarn was left over from my Jaywalkers and was enough to make this square. I was cutting it close: I only had a few inches left! Participants were asked to block to 7 inches, but this yarn would have blocked to 7.5 or 8 inches quite easily.

Lucia Socks


Dear Lucia,

I finished your socks. I made them over my winter break, which helped me to get them done quickly. Usually, with work and that thing called a prospectus, well, socks don't get churned out quite this quickly. Here are the specs for your socks:

Lucia Socks:
Yarn: Trekking Pro Natura 1602 (75% wool, 25% bamboo, no synthetics). (I know that I might have mentioned before that this yarn was not as soft as Regia Bamboo, but it really is soft and has a nice sheen to it.)
Pattern: Astrid's Twirls (modifications: decreased to 68 stitches after gusset)
Timeline: Begun on January 11 and finished on January 21

Don't worry about the tops of the socks looking too skinny--they are very stretchy. Now get over here so I can give them to you!

Love,
the Lone Knitter

More Knitterly Gifts

It's a good thing, a very good thing that I'm on a yarn diet. Every year, Manfeet's family does a little Kris Kringle gift exchange. This year, one of his sisters had me, and since I was away in Texas for the holidays, I got my gifts this weekend. I was really spoiled. She got me some nice clothes, three Roland Barthes books, a movie I've been wanting, and lots of knitterly goodness.

What you're seeing are four sock yarns. From left to right, they are Jitterbug in Toscana, the Great Adirondack Yarn Company's Soxie in Maple Leaf, Soxie in Spring Garden, and Jitterbug in Blue Parrot. Manfeet's sister kept saying that if I didn't like these yarns that I could return them. I told her that I loved them, loved them. What I wanted to say was that not even a pack of bears could get me to part with this yarn.

She also got me Sensational Knitted Socks, Not Tonight Darling, I'm Knitting (although the version I have features a funnier cover than the one linked here), and the 2007 Stitch 'N Bitch Knitter's Calendar. Lots of fun stuff to read through. I almost bought the calendar for myself, so it was a nice surprise.

Contest Prizes Update

Mom J assembled lots of prizes for the blanket drive contest. I'm listing them here in no particular order.

- TEN balls of Lane Borgosesia Merinos Extra Fine (100% merino) in color 33 (pink). These were donated by Susan Cahn and Harriet Shafran over at Knit-a-Bit in Westfield, New Jersey. Thank you, Knit-a-Bit!
- Two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepard Sport in the Watercolor colorway, accompanied by The Sock Journal: Knit the Year in Socks.
- Two skeins of Lamb's Pride worsted in Creme, accompanied by Traditional Aran Knitting.
- Big-Needle Knit Afghans.
- Knitting Journal, a really cool way to keep pictures of your finished objects, ballbands, patterns and pattern variations, notes, and sample yarns organized.
- A fabulous yarn caddy for keeping all those balls of yarn in place when you're using more than one ball at a time.

And, of course, a ball of Trekking 126 will be given away at the end of the contest. For January, the prize is a copy of Knitting for Peace.

Keep your squares, blankets, afghans rolling. Mom J and I are so excited about this drive and contest.

Yours,
the Lone Knitter

Opal Rainforest II Snake Socks for MANFEET; Gifts from Mom J; Happy Blog-anniversary to Me

Opal Rainforest II Snake Socks for MANFEET


I'm back in Brooklyn, just in time for the cold that's heading our way. The airplane ride back was full of bumps, flying over all that weather-radar-green of storms and ice that coveted the mid-west. It's all heading my way.

I finished these socks while I was in Texas, just in time for the cold and my boyfriend's Ph.D. oral examination. (He takes it on Thursday; I've been trying to keep him calm, having gone through it myself back in May.) These are my second pair of MANFEET socks. Everyone seems to have a little nickname for their boyfriends/husbands/partners (the A.D.D. Knitter has her Darling Resident Marxist Curmudgeon and Lazuli has her Coffeeboy), so I'll start calling my boyfriend MANFEET. And, just to make it cute, every once in a while, I'll refer to him as Manly.

Leslie always does a good job of posting the specs of her finished objects. Here is my attempt:

MANFEET #2 Socks:
Yarn: Opal Rainforest II Snake (MANFEET picked this yarn out himself! How cute!)
Pattern: 68 stitches over size 1 Addis using the magicloop
Timeline: Begun on January 4 and finished on January 10


This yarn was delightful to work with. The yarn has so many subtle gradations and variations, and the socks really do look like milk snakes. Milk snakes mimic coral snakes, which are venomous. In Texas we have both milk snakes and coral snakes, so we have a saying that helps us to remember which snake will kill us: Red touch black friend of Jack, red touch yellow kill a fellow.

Gifts from Mom J

Mom J was so overwhelmingly thoughtful. (If you haven't seen her blogs yet, go visit!) For Christmas, she gave me so many gifts. I'll focus on the ones that I know you knitters will love.

Here is the beginning:


This knitting bag was full, I mean full of knitting things: stitch markers, row markers, point-protectors, a tape measure and other thoughtful things of which a knitter can never have too many.


There were also this book on knitting tams, a kaleidoscope, and Knit Picks Palette yarn for a tam project. I'm so excited to learn new techniques, and this tam project is perfect for overcoming my fears of using more than one strand of yarn at a time, combining color, and charts. The kaleidoscope is for viewing color combinations or balls of yarn to see how they'll mesh together. It's a really cool technique that's discussed in the book.

I also got these goodies:


I got sock blockers! Sock blockers! Now my socks can look extra-nice in photos and I can throw out my budget cardboard ones. The sock blockers, in case you're taken, are from this eBay vendor.


I also got two sock yarns that I've been eyeing for a long time now: Lorna's Laces in the Daffodil colorway and Claudia's Handpainted in the Red Wagon colorway.


I think the Red Wagon colorway ought to be renamed to something like Apple Picking, because when I look at the yarn, I don't see a red wagon; instead, I see so many varieties of apples--there's golden delicious, red delicious, Granny Smith, McIntosh, and the whites and cremes of the insides.

The Red Wagon is on top of a new table that Manly got me for Christmas. For a long time, we had a hideous formica-particle-wood-affair that we detested and never used. We were very glad to oust it from our apartment and kick it to the curb where some other Brooklynite gladly picked it up and took it home.

Happy Blog-anniversary to Me

I began this blog on January 13, 2006. I remember reading everyone else's knitting blogs and wanting one of my own, and here I am one year later with real readers. Thank you so much everyone who reads me--it makes me feel so less lonely of a knitter.

Regia Bamboo Socks and, yes, a fabric stash

I made these socks using Regia Bamboo 1071 (45% bamboo, 40% superwash new wool, and 15% polyamide), which my Hot Socks swap pal Lee sent me. These were a really quick knit. I used a 3x1 rib, Sherman short-row heel, and regular decreased toe over 64 stitches on size 1 dpns.

Regia Bamboo is incredibly soft. It's fluffy and bouncy and has a little strand of something that looks like it's made of pearls. Trekking also has a new line of bamboo sock yarn, but it doesn't compare with the Regia in terms of softness.

The socks are resting on a new addition to, yes, my fabric stash. Leslie warned me that some day, I would find myself hunting down and hoarding fabric; behold, the prediction has come true. The Lone Knitter would like to try her hand at quilting this year.

Opal Hundertwasser 650 Socks; Stash Enhancement; First Contest Prize; Other Things

Opal Hundertwasser 650 Socks

Here are my miracle socks, knitted in just five days! Perhaps I just loved the Opal Hundertwasser 650 so much. Perhaps I'm knitting faster. Or, perhaps, as my boyfriend says, "Maybe it's because you're not doing anything else but knitting."

These socks were made over 60 stitches on size 1 Addis, with a traditional heelflap and decreased, kitchenered toe. The cuff is my favorite 2x2 2" rib. I think self-striping yarns look best with a heelflap, and I think they also look best when they don't match. Apparently, Hundertwasser never matched his socks, so I really didn't want these socks to match.

Stash Enhancement

I had to go back to NYC for a few days, while there, the mailman left me a little package. Inside, there were six balls of sock yarn. What you're seeing are Trekking Pro Natura 1602, Opal Rainforest II Tiger, Snake, and Caterpillar, Regia in black, and Opal Hundertwasser 894. (These yarns were purchased before my yarn diet.)

First Contest Prize

Mom J and her sister Aunt P are assembling prizes for the blanket drive contest. In the meantime, I'd like to offer the first prize for the contest.

If you submit for the contest during the month of January, you'll be entered in a drawing to win Knitting for Peace: Making the World a Better Place One Stitch at a Time.

Submissions must be postmarked by January 31.

For contest details, click here.

Other Things

I'm back in Texas, but I can't wait to get back to New York. Mom J got me lots of Christmas knitting goodies, and I'm anxious to get back to them. I have pictures to post soon of all the wonderful things that she got me. She really spoiled me: I got Lorna's Laces and Claudia's Handpainted and many, many other things.

I also finished a pair of socks using the Regia Bamboo that my Hot Socks swap pal Lee gave me. I'll also post pictures of those soon.

I'm enjoying Texas and its red sunsets, mesquite trees, rolling purple-green hills, and cacti. It makes me think there ought to be a sock yarn called Texas. Perhaps I'll dye one.