Happy Halloween!

So here they are, my first pair of socks. Yippy!
The yarn is Fortissima Colori Socka and the pattern I followed is from The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns By Ann Budd.

















Trying some new things on knitcake and learning as I go, so I apologize for anything that isn't working yet.

Sooo close to finishing my socks , I guarantee a photo tomarrow. Yep I think I've been bitten with the sock knitting bug. Yesterday I was in Cambridge and I stopped by a yarn store looking for double pointed needles, well they didn't have what I was looking for but they had this lovely sock yarn. Its Lana Grossa Meilenweit Scala, its yummy.
This afternoon I was sitting here with my soy latte and reading blogs.I found further inspiration for making socks at Dogs Steal Yarn, beautifull socks and other knits. I was also reading purl drops and she has lots of good knitting links. One of which is the free issue of knitnet, I guess normally it a paid subscription thing. Anyways its got lots of patterns and articles. I think the shawl pattern, Purple Dawn, is a good candidate for the Cotton Fleece.
So Metro sitting at the computer with me is becoming a habit, I know this is similar to the first photo I showed of him but I could not resist another.The top half of him is on the desk and the bottom is on my lap.

Yuuuk, So not into my first try sleeve hem. Not sure if its my tension when tacking it down or that it looks bulky there, or both. Will blocking help? Not sure. Never done this before. Love the way it looks in Knit and Tonic's photos. Uggg getting frustrated. Can I please be a master finisher instantly? No? okay I'll let it go, try hemming the other sleeve and see what happens.



So I've been playing with my new Rowan Big Wool. Latley I've been into super simple stuff, but now I'm in the mood to kick it up a notch. But in swatching the Big Wool I'm thinking this is not the yarn to do that with. All I really wanted to do was add a cable on each sleeve, so far its not showing up, I think my next experiment will be a mega big cable cause this four stitch one is not showing up. The lazy part of me wanted a four stitch cable because I could just hold the stitches down with my finger and not use a cable needle. So maybe I'm just wanting to kick it up half a notch.

I took this picture last night as I was walking home from knit night. The blue and green were just so beautiful. I have to say I love knit night , I look forward to it every week. Fellow knitters, coffee, and knitting , it can't get any better.

Woo hoo I finished my second first sock. I'm wearing it right now, its so comfy. Room for lots of improvement but overall I'm happy with it . It's so funny how I got to the red color just as I was finishing the toe, sorry for the blurriness. I've heard about this problem people have , the one-sock-syndrome. Out of fear of getting this I'm going to cast on for the second sock tonight, plus I need some knitting for my commute.

So I'm definitly going to pull out my very first sock and reknit it after I have a completed a pair in this colorway. I can't wait to wear a pair, I don't want to take off this lone one as it is. When I finish the other one I'll have to wear it on its own for a little while to even out the wear, no no no I won't do that, I don't think.
Anyways MNSS cardigan is almost done, second sleeve done, next step is to tack down the hems on the sleeve and bottom. Not sure about this mostly because I've never done it before. Think I'll search out some how-to's.
Also wanted to mention that when making the sock I found Terri Lee Royea's Socks 101 site very helpfull, especially the kitchener stitch.
Last but not least a sweet blurry picture of Metro.

Well this weekend I did not get in as much knitting time as I had wanted to but I did make some progress. So close to finishing MNSS cardigan, hoping tonight to at least finish knitting the second sleeve, then its just the finishing, yeah. Past the heal on the sock but mnss got in the way.
So ahh I don't think I mentioned that I uhhh ordered some yarn last Sunday , yup, I ordered yarn, I don't need this , I could not resist this, I have had Rowan Big Wool on my mind though, I am a bad bad money spender. But did I mention it was on sale? Yup on sale these big beautiful balls of yarn were about five dollars less than usual price. Just couldn't let the chance to own eight lovely Big Wools. I got them from Purl and they wrapped them up all pretty.

So when I finish mnss cardigan I will swatch. Definitly a cardigan but I also love Teva Durham's Lace Leaf Pullover, hmmm not sure.



Tonight I dragged myself to yoga class, hadn't gone in over two weeks. I love yoga but all I 've wanted to do lately is sit at home ,eat cookies,knit and pet my cat. Maybe its the change of season. Anyways I'm glad I went, it was hard but fun. I like the teacher he tells you to yawn a lot, and wow when you're focusing on your body and you yawn it feels soo good.
So I walked around a lot this weekend and took some pictures thought I 'd share. I have several photos of harts on the street already it seems I'm starting a collection of sorts. And despite being sick of the rain I do love how it make all the colors deeper and richer.

Have you seen this show? Small Space, Big style on HGTV. Maybe not for you if you live in a big house, still its got some pretty cool design ideas. Sometimes the commentators can be annoying but overall its good. Love interior design books and magazines, but a lot of the shows are not to my tastes so when I found this one I was a happy camper. A couple of other interior design shows I love are on Fine Living Network, the first one is Dwell (just as cool as the magazine) and Sheila Bridges. Right now I just catch an episode here or there on On Demand but I'm thinking of upgrading my cable soon. Better TV to knit by.
So I found this page in Elle Decoration( the Bristish one) and just about drooled on it. I love the colors, yummy, yummy colors, and the sweater has got me thinking about cables, hmmmm havn't done them in awhile, hmmmmm.

Slow on the knitting front, the sock is making progress , hoping to finish the heel tonight. The MNSS cardigan is almost done, halfway done with second sleeve, yippy. Well I got to wash my hair and knit some more so night night

So not sure if this makes sense but I started on a second sock but different colorway and I went up one size with the needles. Ladder thing was back a bit in the ribbing but better with the stockinette stitch. Knitting on 3's instead of 2's feels much better on the hands, I prefer the metal needles as well. Think I need to just keep going, enough stopping and starting. When I finish this one I will compare.

Did I not say there were millions of ends? At any rate I got them all, and it wasn't that bad at all. Yesterday I washed and blocked both the cardigan and the scarf.

Overall I am happy with Dune, but there are things about it that bug me.
-For the style of sweater I think I should have knit the smaller size, the waist shaping looks funny.
-its a little victorian looking.
-love the sleeves but can't help thinking they are a bit bat girl like.
-I did a crappy job sewing in the sleeves, they are somewhat heavy and right where they meet the shoulder it pulls down, enough for me to see the sewing, yikes, think I'll go back in and reinforce those areas.

I really do like it, really, especially the back, its super comfortable, much happier with the neck as well. Ended up pulling out about six rows at the neck seam and then did a three-needle bind-off.
Kind of don't think I'll like the hook and eye closure now that I've tried it on, so for now I'm not going to attach it. Have thought of making a tie for it, like this, hmmmm will ponder this. Will post info for Dune in a day or two.

The scarf turned out well and I think I'll wear it a lot this winter. So basically I wash my knits by putting them in a lingerie bag and throwing them in the washer , cold water, with the rest of my laundery. I know, it careless, but thats how I usually do it. However I will not be washing this scarf like that again. It felted a bit, a bit scary when I first pulled it out of the bag but it got better when I blocked it out. whew. SSSooooooo glad I found that out now and not with the sweater I will soon be sewing together. The yarn is Rowan Kid Classic, a really nice soft yarn.

I promise if I take pictures in this mirror again I will clean off the toothpaste. Night Night

So I wanted to talk about this book. I LOVE THIS BOOK.

Lotta is Swedish, but lives in California. As far as I know this book is only in Japanese, with bits of English.




This book has so much visual icandy that it almost does'nt matter that I can't read most of the text, I would love to read the chocolate cookie recipe. It really inspires me, it makes me want make art and crafts for a living. To combine, art, creativity, with everyday life. I look at this book and I want to make cool books (I'm a bookbinder so thats a given), knitted pieces, dress to express myself better ( thru color, textures, uniqueness), and create a home to that inspires me to do all this stuff. Lotta has a very cool online store and you can buy this book there. I bought mine at Yesasia because a was buying other craft books as well.
Today I went to my LYS and bought some Cotton Fleece, T-pins, and hook & eye closures.


The Cotton Fleece is a going to be a gift for a friend who has been ill. Its going to be a rectangular shawl and , well, thats as far as the idea has got. I've done Clapotis, so something like that, simple and elegant. Any ideas?


Thougt I might need more t-pins because tomarrow I plan on washing and blocking dune and the blue scarf ( see my 2st post for pics). Today I fixed the neck and tonight I plan on sewing in the MILLIONS of ends( I swear they must have multiplied when I put it down for so long). Hoping a hook and eye closure will work on dune instead of a tie.

Also stopped in at H&M today and picked up these really cute mushroom pins.







The sock. Hmmmm still thinking about it, leaning towards starting on second colorway on larger needles. Somebody asked about the yarn, yes it is Fortissima Missoni, check out my 1st post to see how I discovered it. Thinking I might order more. Maybe I should try to finish making a PAIR of socks first.

I think maybe I'm too tired to be pleased with this, its way way past my bedtime. Its my first sock , but its snug. Not sure what to do about this.
Options are;
-rip back to heel
-knit second and give away
-try blocking this one bigger now
-knit second one and try , try to make bigger.

Must sleep .

I seem to have a problem finishing a few projects, you'd think with this extra long weekend we just had I'd have accomplished some of these things. Nope, not a one. First up, the grey sweater, actually its called Dune, soooo close. Just need to sew in the ends, block, and take care of the problem area on the back of the neck. The design on each side of the fronts went up and around the neck and met in the back. Well they did'nt meet very well, its bugging me. So close to being done.


So I finally found a winter coat, searched high and low and yesterday found a winner. I got it at Ann Taylor Loft, strange, not my usual shopping choice. Anyways it perfect, a nice brown and cream tweedy twill, and the key was that it would work with lots of different color hats, gloves, and scarves. Which brings me to the blue scarf, a couple of ends to sew in and blocking.

Finally there's Cosmopolitan, not up for a picture yet, the pieces are all done, but have'nt started any of the finishing.
I love knitting, which means I have a cat, and his name is Metro. He's reading knitting blogs in this picture.

Hello! Welcome to Knitcake. Wow, I've been wanting to do the blog thing for awhile so its really exciting to finally be doing it. Think I'll just jump in and talk about what I'm working on now.

First up are socks, or sock in progress. Now I've been knitting for over twelve years, even worked in a knit shop for a long time when I lived in Chicago, but I have never knit a pair of socks. It has been the fear of double pointed needles thing, also just really sucked at it. Could not get rid of the really, really annoying ladders. Gave up, lost interest. Then I started wearing clogs, suddenly all my faded black socks with worn out heels were bugging me. So after many false starts I've finally got it going and this pair I WILL FINISH. Part of what inspired me was seeing socks in progress on My Life In Stitches , oh my gosh the colors, the big stripes, loved the yarn. So I ordered some of that yarn, in a couple different colors. The pattern I'm following is from Ann Budd's, The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. Somehow I've gotten the really, really annoying ladder thing under control, but knitting this tight is killing my hands so the next pair will have to be a looser gauge, even if it means they will wear out faster. Actually a little farther along now, getting ready to do the heel gusset.

I love reading Knit and Tonic , and I've love the idea of knitting from the top down. So this is the Marilyn's Not-So-Shrunken Cardigan, which you can purchase on her blog, and it has been a lot of fun to work on. When this is done I'm going to knit a top down cardigan in a cool fuzzy green yarn I bought a while ago and make up the pattern myself, gulp.

Not very exciting photo but trust me this is a fun way to knit a garment, plus you can try it on as you make it. The only thing I'm doing different is I'm doing the sleeves back and forth on the circular's,meaning I will have sleeve seams, easier to work on while traveling.
So today is the Fall Yarn Festival at Windsor Button, 20% off on yarn, ohhh I don't know if I can resist, so don't need more yarn, soooo should not be spending more money on yarn.
Knitcake is very much a learning thing for me, so stay tuned for links and things, and please excuse any mistakes, run on sentences and such. Bye.