Knitting by Zen

Here are the socks that I’m knitting. I may out myself by doing this but I need to reassure my swap partner that I am knitting her socks! I’ve gotten 1/3rd of the way down the leg now, with TV last night and a meeting today:

I also wore a very cool skirt today, and great socks:

Zaria thought they were cool too:

And - I got a package in the mail from my lovely swap partner, who dyed and knit the socks herself!!!!!

So my pal upstream has sent me her package and I’m in love with the whole thing! I seem to have an orange thing and monkey thing at the moment, and especially for magnets, so I am ABSOLUTELY thrilled!

Contents of package:

- very pretty monkey bear
- monkey socks in Yarn Lust "Heartbreaker" on merino, bamboo and nylon
- in Yarn Lust "Crushed Grapes" on superwash merino
- "Thanksgiving" on suri alpaca sock yarn from A Time to Dye
- 2 skeins of Knit Picks Gloss in "Pumpkin" - merino/silk combination
- 14g of gorgeously red 2/26 cashmere from Habu Textiles
- Ghirardelli chocolates
- monkey stamps, magnets, pens and stitch markers
- Twisted Flowers sock pattern
- and a GORGEOUS monkey card, which is ironic because I am a Monkey-year baby and that was part of why I went in for this swap.

Off to study some more! 

It’s been a long month, so here’s some top headlines:

1. YARN FOR SALE!! I have 11 8 skeins of yarn for sale at the moment, and in fact at least one of them is a double up, so if you bid on it you may end up getting a skein anyway.

2. I am getting the dye pot out tomorrow hopefully. It’s exciting to have orders to dye for, and plans for colours. I have a heap of REALLY exotic yarns (cashmere, mohair, silk etc) to dye up and sell and I’m excited to see how they go.

3. I knat a scarf for someone! She says she loves it too:

The scarf is knit for 45cm in cables, and then the remaining 100cm in a very simple "lace" stitch… To do the scarf, cast on 54 st (I used 8ply wool on 6mm needles) and knit 3 rows, then k3, (k1p1) 8 times, C16F, (k1p1) 8 times, k3. Knit another 7 rows. Then k3, C16F, (k1p1) 8 times, C16F, k3. Repeat until you are sick to death of cabling and wishing it wasn’t 30C when you were trying to knit it.

At this point you, like me, may decide to do something a tad more sensible than continue with the cables as it is about to get a lot warmer here. So the idea is that there is enough cabling to go around the neck, and then the lofty lacy part to get the length up, but without making your neck melt! To do this, I did a double decrease (slip 1, k2tog, psso), with a single decrease in the middle stitches of the row because there are 54 stitches in the row, which is not divisible by three! I then switched to 12mm needles (hah! You thought it was something exciting!!!) and I continued on my merry way.

The white splotch is a fantastic "From the knitting needles of Em" lable from a previous swap pal by the way.

4. I am now a Tupperware demonstrator. I think that makes me insane.

5. Some of my yarn has sold at One Planet Yarns! I am so excited about this for two reasons - firstly, I have $$ coming to me (which makes a big change for my student-inspired budget) and because it means people love my yarns!

6. I forget sometimes that knitters are people too. I know knitters from lots of walks of life, knitters who are older than me and even a few that are younger than me. I am surprised though when I come across knitters who are bigoted, racist, sexist or just plain obnoxious. I sometimes forget that being a knitter doesn’t *always* make you a nice person.

7. I’ve been dyeing yarn for my friend Mel as well:

For a change, these photos are crap. They were taken on an ugly table under false lights and don’t do the yarn justice in the slightest! The top yarn for example is emerald green, not a shade of blah. *sigh* 

8. I’m knitting another scarf:

It’s the Dayflower Scarf pattern and it’s lovely!

Last of all - Zaria says "I has a flava"

I went back to uni a month ago and have barely had time to scratch since. I’ve done some dyeing, but for the most part it’s been for orders or for helping a designer friend Mel out.

I have signed up for the Sock Monkey Monkey Sock swap because I’m insane and need more stuff to squeeze into my life . I blame Mel.

The basics:
Do you consider yourself a beginning sock knitter, an intermediate, or have you been doing this so long you could probably knit a pair in your sleep? Intermediate - I can knit socks, I’m just not hugely fast at them! 

The measurements:
Shoe Size: Size 7.5 womens
Foot circumference: Will have to get back to you on this!
Foot length:

 
Yarn Preferences:
What colors do you love? Orange, red, yellow, purple - bright colours!  

Do you prefer solids or variegated? I prefer solid for socks, if it suits the pattern well!
 
Do you prefer wool, cotton or acrylic yarn? Wool! Or other wooly-type things, like alpaca

What colors would you never wear? Anything pastelly

What are your favorite brands of yarn? Filatura

Are there any new brands you would like to try? Lornas Laces, Noro, Blue Moon, Interlacements… Otherwise, anything handspun and/or handdyed - I love getting other indie yarns!

Cookie A. Patterns:
Which of her patterns have you already knit? Baudeliare is the only one so far
 
Which pattern(s) would you like to knit and don’t already own?
* Gothic Spire
* Millicent
* Rhiannon
* Thelonious
* Twisted Flower

Other pertinent information:
Would you be willing to have an international Monkey Pal or do you prefer one in the US?  
As I am international (Australia!), I’d be happy with international
 
Do you have any allergies?
Cigarette smoke, and artificial perfumes, so PLEASE *nothing* scented
 
Will your knitting be exposed to smoke or animals?
I have a knitten who loves my knitting, so yes
 
Are you on Ravelry yet?  If you don’t mind having new friends, what is your Ravelry name? KnittingByZen

  Sign ups end 31st August 2007. Go sign up now!

I’m so excited with myself today because I finished my secret-pal item and I am DYING to show you how it went, but I’ll be restrained until it’s safely posted and off! Suffice it to say that I’m going to make some for me.

I got two packages this morning - a whole heap of textbook (woo my life is so exciting when I get happy about textbooks!) and a package from a (now not so secret!) secret pal!

Inside was a gorgeous little bag, and a lovely hat, and some teas! I love tea and I really appreciate someone buying me some .

The hat was Coronet from Knitty abley modelled by Oscar there (so it’s probably a smidge big for my head but that’s ok because it covers my ears!!!) and Sophie from Magknits, in the most perfect red Cascade 220. Oscar said that it was the most perfect felting he had ever seen by the way. I feel very loved and thought of when this was made, and want to thank the lovely Christine for my package!!!

In other knitting news, I’ve made lots of stitch markers:

LAST of all: is this for you? Are you my secret pal? Do you love these so much you want me to be your pal? Hmmmm - all will be revealed in a few days!!

Ok I lied - one more thing. I love dyeing yarn and will put up a tutorial shortly on it but I wanted to say that I find it fantastic that I can love it so much that a skein of yarn moves me almost to tears. Here is the skein: