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Welcome to the Summer Solstice, bloggers! As of 9:24a.m. EST it is officially summer.

I was out all day yesterday at a particularly grueling training class so I was pretty beat when I got home. Therefore, no aran update photos today. Though I did knit on it last night.

Yesterday Tracy asked me what gauge I get in the Regia Cotton Plus. I'm getting about 8.25 st/inch on size 0 needles. Tracy, I like the sock you're knitting right now!

Some Sock Talk . . .

My current sock is being knitted toe-up. Okay, all my socks are knitted toe-up.

For this pair I used the square toe cast on, which is well-documented on the Socknitters site here. For this sock, a woman's medium size in sock yarn, I started with twelve loops. After doing this toe-up start I ended up with 24 stitches. I increase to 60 stitches for the foot of the sock.

I work until it's just 2 inches shy of the total foot length before starting my short row heel. I short-row until I have 12 live stitches on the needle, and I don't wrap my stitches. Then when I go back and put all the  . . . uh . . . "un-live" stitches back on, I pick up a stitch in-between the last live stitch and the stitch I'm adding and knit the new stitch together with the to-be-added stitch -- I find I like the way this looks much better than the wrapped method.

Then knit the leg plain until when the sock is folded in half at the heel the leg is the same length of the foot minus the toe. At that point I do ribbing until the top of the sock equals the whole length of the foot.

And that's my basic ankle sock pattern!

6.20.2002
Thursday - Q&A

Questions from my tag-board:

Tina asked how large my stash is. Well, it's a helluva lot larger than it was five years ago. I've probably got enough wool for two years' worth of projects. I haven't exactly inventoried it because I'm a little scared to.

Sharon asked the size and brand the of needles I'm using for my sock-in-progress and what yarn I'm using. The needles are my beloved Pony Pearls in U.S. size 0 and the yarn is a Regia cotton/wool/polyamide blend. Here's the label:

Fearless Fair Isle Update

A whole bunch of people joined the Yahoo Group I created yesterday. Wow! The link to join is over to the right.

A Cute Story

Lastly, a cute story. Totally unrelated to knitting but I come out looking good in it, so you have to listen.

I was in the grocery store after work yesterday, waiting in line to check out. There was a little girl with her mom in front of me. The little girl kept looking back at me and finally said, "Did you see the movie Shrek?" I said "Yes I did." She said "Well, you're even prettier than the princess in Shrek!" I thanked her . . . and then asked if she meant before the princess turned green and fat. She said yes, she did. Made my afternoon. :-)

Gonna spend the day away from my computer. See y'all tomorrow!

6.19.2002
Wednesday - How Fearless are You?

I created a group in Yahoo for the Fearless Fair Isle project -- click on the button to the right to subscribe, or email me and I'll subscribe you. Once we get a few members I'll conduct a poll to see when you all want to start the project.

Sabine asked in the comments yesterday if anyone knew of appropriate weight cotton that has enough colors to do this project. Anyone? Reply in my comments if you have an idea.

Sabine also asked what other project I'll be working on at the same time as Fearless Fair Isle. I think I'll knit an AS gansey out of my olive green guernsey wool.

Oooh! Oooh! Lookie what I got in the mail yesterday:

My shetland wool! How cool is that? These are the colors I'm using for my fair isle. I haven't wound it into balls yet, I've just been fondling it.

Oh, check out my sock-in-progress here. This is really cool sock yarn. These socks are a gift for someone who I hope isn't reading my blog or she won't be surprised!

6.18.2002
Tuesday - Some Fair Isle Thoughts

First off, I had an error (horrors!) in my colors listed for the Fearless Fair Isle, below. I had light purple listed twice in Colorway 1. I've corrected it, so the colors are as they should be now. I also added a Key to the charts here.

There were questions/comments yesterday from several of you. I'm so glad that several of you want to knit along with me. You have plenty of time to get started -- I haven't even gotten the wool I ordered yet. I will do a swatch when I receive it and post a photo so you can see what the pattern looks like knitted up.

If any of you want to go ahead and knit a test swatch from my charts, please feel free to. I am using a US size 3 (3.25mm) needle and looking for a gauge of 8 stitches and 8 rows to the inch. But of course, whatever needle size it takes to get the gauge. I'm designing the pattern in two sizes -- 42" and 45.5".

And in answer to Kathy's question -- yes, this would be a great first fair isle project for you after doing your Bair Isle. It's not too complicated but will be constructed in traditional fair isle fashion.

I think on this project I'll break my cardinal rule and work on the fair isle and another project at the same time. That way, those of you who don't knit as quickly as I do can keep up if you want to.

But the bottom line is that this is supposed to be fun. No pressure. You can knit as slowly or as quickly as you like. When I have the pattern completely written out I will post it on my website so anyone who wants to move ahead of the crowd can.

Another idea -- would anyone like me to start a "Fearless Fair Isle" email group in Yahoo? That way we could all talk to each other a little easier.

What does everyone think? If you've got any more and/or better ideas, please let me know.

Aran Update

Finished the front ribbing and started the body pattern. I didn't take a photo because you all know what it looks like!

Hard to believe another weekend has gotten away from me. But it was a good one, with great weather!

And some knitting was accomplished. There's a photo of Dalriada here. Since taking that photo I did complete the front and cast on for the back. I've got about an inch of ribbing done on the back.

And you can see my new sock-in-progress here. This is a wool-cotton blend Regia sock yarn. I love the colors! It looks like a tropical sunset to me!

Fearless Fair Isle Update!

I've gotten lots of questions and interest in my Fearless Fair Isle idea. So today, check out the full-size graph! Jamieson & Smith colors are as follows:

Now, as I mentioned to some of you, I won't know how much wool the design takes until I knit it. so if you wanna wait until I finish before starting, you certainly can. I have ordered 4 ounces of each of the seven colors in the colorway I'm knitting (#1) and if I run out of any one color, I'll just order more.