Amy Artisan

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Category: Socks (page 1 of 4)

Starting (Sock) Lineup

Throughout knitting blogs, October is better known as Socktoberfest – Lolly has been rallying knitters to a month of all things socks for several years. In 2006, socks still hadn’t clicked with me. Last year, I was working on my MTM Socks during the month. This year, even with other socks on the needles, I will be working on for a new pair of socks this month.

Last fall, I bought 2 skeins of Lorna’s Laces in the Cubby Bear colorway and added them to my stash. What a fun way to combine being a knitter and a Cubs’ fan! As the Cubs season unfolded this year, I thought that if they made it to the playoffs, I would bring out the yarn as a playoff knitting project. So, since the Chicago Cubs are the 2008 NL Central Champs and will be playing in October, it seems only appropriate to have my Cubby Socks be my Socktoberfest project.

I was wondering how the colorway would knit up so on Friday evening I started with one pattern and it appears to be a winner. This is my second time knitting up the Forward and Back pattern (rav only) – I still need to blog about the first pair, will do so sometime during Socktoberfest. So, the pattern was indeed a winner & I just kept going with it over the weekend. I’m just about ready to start the heel on sock #1.

Go Cubs!

April Showers…

…bring May flowers; however, they didn’t bring the Yarn Harlot to Chicago.

This past week was a lovely week of almost summerlike weather. On Friday, spring storms rolled in & wreaked havoc on plane travel in the area. Stephanie was scheduled to speak down on the south side of Chicago on Friday evening – so, on Friday H was for (Yarn) Harlot. After work, I trekked down to Oak Lawn from my client site & Jen took the train out from the city. We got to the hotel ballroom about 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the event & quickly settled into seats and started knitting. We ended up sitting behind a friend from My Sister’s Knits. Around 6:45 it was announced that the event would be delayed until 8:00 because of flight issues. When it was announced, some left to go grab dinner and most people just kept on knitting. About 20 minutes later it was announced that Stephanie would not be coming and the event would be rescheduled. Since the room was booked for the evening we were invited to stick around as long as we wanted. The area was under a tornado watch & you could see the storm rolling in, so Jen & I decided to just circle around our chairs with Jan & the knitters in front of us. We each worked on our projects & chatted as the storm passed overhead. After a while, the storm was done and we all headed home. While the evening wasn’t quite what we had thought it would be, it still was a fun evening. We look forward to when Stephanie is rescheduled back to Chicago.

Alias

When I started blogging in 2006, I found several blogs that I read were participating in an ABC-along. I was intrigued by the idea – so when I saw that another round was planned for 2008 I knew it was an “-along” that I wanted to join. I don’t know how many “-alongs” I will join this year but this is one that I look forward to working through. For some letters I already know what I will post – for others it’s still a mystery what I will blog.

A is for ALIAS

A is for Alias

(You thought I would pick Amy or Artisan, didn’t you?)

In 2001, I remember seeing the ads for a new show called Alias and I thought it looked like something I would be interested in watching – little did I know…

I was home for the weekend in the ‘Ville when Alias premiered at the end of September, 2001 – so Artisan Dad watched the premiere with me and we both were immediately hooked on the show. It quickly became a routine that on the morning after an episode I would call Dad during my commute and we would talk all things Alias – the gadgets, the plot, the twists, the family relationships, the time warps that allowed them to travel around the world & back in seemingly the same day, etc.

Throughout the seasons this was a “never miss” show for me. If I wasn’t home the VCR was in action. When I met Jen & Greg we quickly discovered that we were all Alias fans – so there were times when a tape was passed around to catch up on a missed episode.

Fast forward to Season 4 – Maya was still in Chicago and I got her hooked on the show. Most Wednesday evenings I would go over to Maya’s to hang out with her & Miss Butterfly while Matt was out playing basketball with the guys. After dinner and some playtime we would put Miss Butterfly to bed & then watch Alias. To catch up with the show, Maya & Matt borrowed my DVDs of the earlier seasons and eventually Matt’s parents got hooked on the show as well.

As Season 5 was coming to an end I was just starting my project in Chattanooga. It was only fitting that I was able to watch the series finale with Artisan Dad back in the ‘Ville (we both weren’t around on the evening that it aired and so watched the tape the following weekend when I was home for Memorial Day).

As a fan of Nancy Drew and Wonder Woman as well as mystery/intrigue novels (including some Tom Clancy) it seems like the next step in the entertainment evolution that I would have latched onto this series. The seasons on DVD are in my “go to” rotation when I want something in the background during a rainy/snowy day inside knitting. Every so often I’ll encounter something in everyday life that will remind me of something from the show – for example, whenever I see someone talking on the phone in a parking deck I wonder if they are really on the phone or just trying to not stand out (a key scene from the pilot episode).

When I saw this yarn, even though the colors are not quite me I knew I would knit it up – it is the Alias colorway from the TV Yarn collection. In keeping with the A – it only made sense to knit up the Ampersand pattern. It has been fun to see how this colorway plays with the pattern – the white/gray/black is spiraling around the sock to break up the bright colors. In the dreary mid-winter days this colorway is a cheerful diversion.

From Head to Toe…and more

As I mentioned in my last post – my Thanksgiving travels provided me the opportunity to start and finish a new winter hat and also finish up some socks.

Purple Purl Beret

From Head…The Purple Purl Beret…As I was packing for my trip home, I picked out a skein of Malabrigo in the Pearl Ten colorway from my stash & put it in a ziploc bag with my size 9 DPN needles – I figured I would improvise some sort of hat as I went along. A quick search on Ravelry pointed me to The Last Minute “Purled” Beret over at Knit & Tonic. I printed out the pattern & added it to my bag. Once I got to the gate, I cast on for the hat. As the afternoon progressed into evening my flight was canceled & the next flight was delayed for several hours. By the time I arrived in Atlanta over half of the hat was complete. This hat was a quick project to complete & has been in use every day since I’ve been back from Thanksgiving. The beret is very warm and doesn’t leave me with hat head when I come indoors. An added bonus is that this beautiful colorway compliments my Silky Summer Scarf that I made from the Brooks Farm Limited Edition III earlier this year.

MTM Socks

To Toe…My MTM Socks…My fourth pair of socks and the first “real” pattern that I’ve followed. And my favorite socks to date. I have often said that I’m a sucker for well named yarns – this yarn was one of those moments. I saw this Mary Tyler Moore colorway in the TV Yarn collection and knew that I needed it. I’ve always enjoyed the show – when I moved to Chicago over 8 years ago I remember an email from my Dad on the day that I flew up here where he imagined me throwing a hat in the air on Michigan Ave. as I walked into my new office. Through Ravelry I discovered the Ampersand pattern and thoroughly enjoyed knitting it – I will use it again in the future. On the foot of the second sock I accidentally went down to 23 stitches on the 2nd needle which caused the blue pooling towards the toe. The yarn was great to work with – I’m sure I will knit with it again (although I need to work through my stash a bit before picking up another yarn).

Silly Sis!

And More…Earlier this fall I finished up an iPod case for Rebecca and sent it home with Dad before I took a picture. While home, I managed to document the project. The flap is the “Grandma’s Favorite” dishcloth pattern – I used bits of Cascade 220 from my stash.

Over 2 weeks ago my sister had an encounter with a deer while driving home from school. When she called to tell me about the accident she referenced the scarf that I knit for her earlier this year. Being the silly sister that I am, when I saw a skein of Bernat Camouflage yarn in pinks while in Meijers I knew a simple scarf was in order. I cast on 25 stitches & worked the yarn in a K1P1 pattern until I ran out of yarn. The gauge and width of the scarf cause the camo coloring to knit into more of an argyle pattern. I don’t expect that this scarf will get a lot of use but when I saw the yarn I couldn’t resist.

First Snow 

Not only is the holiday season in full force these days – the handknit warmth season is in full effect here in Chicago. This weekend saw our first “real” snow of the year. As the snow moved through and changed to sleet and then rain it was “perfect” weather for staying inside and continuing to make progress on holiday knits. The forecast for this week looks very chilly – so handknit hats, scarves and wrist warmers will definitely be in use during the commute.

‘Toberfest

In the last couple of years I have noticed that my October calendar always seems to fill up with assorted fun – this year is no different. In fact, this weekend was close to non-stop fun.

BOOK-toberfest

Amy Grant Reading

On Thursday afternoon Jen & I left work a bit earlier and headed up to Milwaukee for an evening with Amy Grant. Just this week she released a memoir, Mosaic. A book store in Milwaukee hosted her for this event at Alverno College. It was an incredible evening of her reading passages from the book, telling stories, singing songs, taking questions & song requests from the audience. When I received an email notice about this event I knew it would be a perfect birthday gift for Jen – we have both been Amy Grant fans since elementary school days. The evening didn’t disappoint. Once I’ve finished reading the book, I’ll do a longer post and include more pictures from the evening.

Jen & Amy

CROP-toberfest
True, Create Memories has renamed this Great Gatherings but we still call it Croptoberfest. I spent all day Saturday with friends focused on scrapbooking. I have lots of albums in progress so what did I do? Start on something new. I took a photo album I made from a missions trip to Mexico in 1988 and began to journal and organize to transfer it to a new Picfolio album. It was fun to read through my simple “journal” from the trip and flesh out the stories around the pictures.

WALK-toberfest
Today was the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. It indeed was a beautiful day along the Chicago lakefront for this walk. Stay tuned for a detailed post tomorrow about this event.

Making Strides 2007

SOCK-toberfest
Last year I had visions of participating in Soctoberfest – and of course they didn’t go anywhere. This year, different story. In between all of the busyness this month I have managed to finish the first of my MTM socks and start on the 2nd one.

First MTM Sock

This if my first “detailed” pattern & I love how the beautiful yarn knit up with it. This weekend I’m heading to Dallas for another round of “How Tall This Fall?” with Miss Butterfly & Miss Doodlebug – so socks on the needles will be the perfect travel projects.

As we move towards the end of October, what ‘Toberfest fun are you having this year?

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