Just found this...

Knitters, beware! New online knit-magazine to consume your precious stitch time!

Knotions looks to be rather cool and even empowering.

I Really Am a Sucker for Sparkly

Just a little pattern solicitation that's all.

I checked Ravelry already, but I wasn't too impressed with my results.

You see, while I was at The Point today, I ran into a fellow knitter. I was about to cash out, when I saw she was getting some nifty sparkly yarn. I went to the back to check it out. You know how much of a sucker for sparkly I am. Oh, you want to see it?

So, after much thought, I think I've decided to knit the Spiral Boot Socks from last year's Summer Interweave Knits out of it. With the sparkles and the spirals I think they'd be pretty funky. Those will be the socks I knit after I'm done with these Bellatrix socks! Whee!!!

Anyway, the yarn is Kraemer Yarns Sterling Silk & Silver and it's made of merino, silk, nylon and sterling silver. It's totally fabulous.

Triumph!

TAKE THAT! I pwned the Over the Knee Stockings! I actually read the pattern correctly this time, I adjusted for my row gauge being off by a bit, and figured out how many additions needed to be made. I had to do about four more pattern repeats than were in the pattern. I added quite a few more stitches as well so they'd be a bit wider at the top to fit my massive thighs. The top right twist rib I did holding the Louet Gems yarn together with some white elastic so that these suckers will stay up.

I'm really quite proud of these babies and think they're going to be awesome and warm as well as rather sexy this winter.

---

Next up on my Sock-Off docket are the Bellatrix socks. I got the pattern off Ravelry for free...which is cool. I'll be knitting them out of Socks That Rock lightweight in the Flower Power color-way I acquired in a trade with Illana for a few skeins of Twinkle Chunky that I had.

I'm about one pattern repeat into the sock, and they're not only quick, but I think they're going to look awesome with this yarn!

BEA 2008 in LA

I went to Book Expo America last weekend for work. I checked out a lot of the craft book companies to scope out what's coming for fall. Here's a recap with reviews based on either the pages from catalogs or samples I saw at the show.

RANDOM HOUSE - POTTER CRAFT
Mason Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines: Patterns, Stories, Pictures, True Confessions, Tricky Bits, Whole New Worlds, and Familiar Ones, Too
$29.95 | HC | September 2008
Kay Gardiner & Ann Shayne

This book looks promising. I was very inspired by the first Mason Dixon Knitting and the little I've seen of this one doesn't make me think they will ever disappoint me. The Potter Craft catalog includes a witty excerpt describing the dos and don't's of knitting for kids.

Knitting Noro
$27.50 | HC | October 2008
Jane Ellison
I've always been fascinated by the colors I've seen in Noro, but it alway seems I try to use the wrong Noro. Kureuon or Keuron sock are probably not the best yarns for me because I'm such a sucker for softness. Oh wait this is supposed to be about the book. Well, the book looks like an expensive 128 page Noro booklet. Which makes sense since the author is the designer of like six Noro books.

Continuous Cables
$32.50 | HC | October 2008
Melissa Lapman

While I admit I haven't knit anything out of Cables Untangled yet, I will admit to having looked at it and wondering where I was going to find the time to knit all of that. I'm totally enamoured with cables, so these two books are very much up my alley. It looks like the author came up with some of her own cable motifs for the book which is both innovative and so difficult that she might even get me to buy the book for just that reason.

INTERWEAVE
Knitted Lace of Estonia
$24.95 | PB | November 2008
Nancy Bush

GOD! I have to wait until November for this to come out!? I got to see a few pages of it at the Interweave booth and it was just tantilizing. There was a lilly of the valley pattern that i was getting close to literally drooling on. Nancy Bush is nothing but a genius with wool and I'm sure that this title is no exception.

Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn
$19.95 | PB | February 2009
Carol Sulcoski

I'm not quite sure how a book publishing in February 2009 makes it into their Fall 2008 catalog. As we all know, the challenge with handpainted yarn is to show off the awesome colors while maintaining stitch definition in a pattern. I'm not sure if they just picked a bad example or two, but the photos in the catalog kind of scare me that Interweave might have missed the mark on this one. Also, the cover looked much different in the catalog than it does on Amazon.

It Itches: A Stash of Knitting Cartoons
$12.95 | HC | October 2008
Franklin Habit

I definitely don't read the Panopticon enough. Actually, blog reading is the first thing to drop from my schedule when life gets busy (which means i haven't been reading anyone's blog as of late). I am, however, just as familiar with Dolores as the next knitter, and am quite happy to see these cartoons come together in a book! Publishing in October means this book is well poised to be just the relief a holiday knitter will require after they've never fully finished those slippers for mom....

There were also a couple of books listed in the back of the Interweave catalog that I saw and feel a growing urge to buy:

• Inspired to Knit - I think this should be coming out shortly. Flipping through an advance copy at the booth, there were certainly quite a few knits that fit my style quite well.


• Knit so Fine - I actually went out and bought this last night at The Point on my way home. I couldn't get the image of the pink cowl sweater on page 81 out of my head. There were about five other patterns in there I can see myself actually knitting as well, although, I recognize that I look better in finer gauge knits.

STEWART, TABOORI & CHANG
Custom Knits
$27.50 | HC | September 2008
Wendy Bernard

I used to read Knit & Tonic habitually . Wendy blogged quite a bit about the process of creating this book and I can't wait to see what she's come up with. The synopsis makes it seem like there are tip b oxes along the way to tell you how to make the garment your own. Between Wendy's down to earth writing style and the sample photographs in the catalog, this book is definitely going on my birthday list!

Alterknits Felt
$24.95 | HC | October 2008
Leigh Radford

I hope the photographs for this Alterknits book are in focus. Felting isn't really my thing, to be honest, but there was an ottoman that caught my eye. I imagine that if I did like felting, I might like this book.

CHRONICLE BOOKS
Picture Perfect Knits
$19.95 | PB with Wire-O | November 2008
Laura Birek

This might even get me to knit with color! Some of the projects really looked awesome, and there were bunches of hip charted designs in the back that you could use for whatever project you wanted. The instructions were fairly well illustrated and looked to be in real English (as opposed to knotted and complex English).

WORKMAN - STOREY PUBLISHING
101 Luxury Yarn One Skein Wonders
$18.95 | PB | October 2008
Judith Durant

I wasn't thrilled about the first One Skein Wonder book. the second one is pretty good though. Both of them, I thought, were better than Interweave's One Skein., though mostly because the One Skein Wonder books actually do keep their projects to one skein. This luxury yarn book, however, is probably where the series should have started. Firstly, it will make an amazing gift paired with a luxurious skein of silk yarn (for example). Also, if one wants to splurge on nice yarn, but are constrained by publishing salaries. All in all, though the quality of this book is going to be determined by the patterns held within, which I'm personally hoping are more like 1010 Designer One Skein wonders.

The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques
$29.95 | HC | December 2008
Margret Radcliffe

You know, it's hard to knit with color without knitting something that ends up homely looking. I think that's one of the reasons I don't really knit with colors. this one does look like it tries hard to be too homely, though. It does look like the color pairing guide I saw looked pretty cool, but eh overall feel of the book just didn't feel like the kind of stuff I would want to knit. It did seem like threw were some kind of cool techniques that were a bit different than intarsia and fair isle, which could be cool to read about.

STERLING PUBLISHING
Lost Sock: 200 Clever ways to use Your Single Socks
$9.95 | PB | August 2008
Cynthia L. Copeland

I know it's not specifically a knitting book, but whether that sock be lost to the washer machine, or lost to your stash (you know what I mean!), this book seems to have witty, instead of practical solutions to the age old problem of what to do with that single sock.

Nicky Epstein's Knitting on Top of the World: The Global Guide to Traditions and Techniques
$34.95 | HC | November 2008

I've never bought a Nicky Epstein book, but I respect her work quite a bit. THe edge books are rather ingenious. I'm curious to see what this book has between its pages.

Sterling also has a couple more Vogue Knitting On the Go books coming up. I so rarely find anythig knit worthy in them, but figure they're worth reporting. There's one on Granny squares and one on shawls.

so I hope that's enough for you...

After Memorial Day, it's time for more socks!

Claudine and I decided to do a Sock off. I have a rather competitive streak as some as you may know. And once when Claudine and I were comparing sock yarn stashes, my competitive streak decided to show itself and the First Annual Sock Off was born.

The Sock Off will run from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The idea is to knit the most socks between the two of us in that amount of time. Socks will be awarded points on the following critera, and they'll be weighed afterwards (Claudine says her feet are bigger than mine, so this is an attempt at making it even)

• 1 point for a heel flap


• 1 point for a short row heel


• 1 point for a cable pattern


• 1 point for a lace pattern


• 1 point for a patterned heel


• 1 point for short row toes

Other points will be added as needed. Can you think of any that are missing?
The winner will get bragging rights and a sock yarn of her choosing from the loser. I think there should be a certificate involved as well...but we'll see to that later. :)

Really, it's anyone's game. I actually don't have a ton of traveling going on in June. July, with San Diego Comic Con might help give me a boost, but it's possible that I'll just be so exhausted from working the show that I'll come back to just pass out in my hotel room sans knitting.

So, I think the first pair of socks that I'm going to work on for the Sock Off will be the Over the Knee Stockings from Handknit Holidays (Ravelry Pattern Link). I've got new yarn (Louet Gems in a nice cream color), and a new understanding of the pattern (from having done it a couple times before and failing). I understand that I have to make the sock a few stitches wider to cover my thigh and that it also needs to be about four pattern repeats longer than the pattern specifies. Now that I'm writing that, I hope I have enough yarn. The strategy is that even if I dont' complete the pair by the end of the summer, I'll have knit so much on these socks that when weighed they'll out-match my competitor. mwa ha ha!

I Give Up

I know I can knit the Thelonious Sock by Cookie A. It's just to the point where I don't want to. And nothing you can say will make me! So I'm shelving it. The skein is already wound though, so I'll find another good sock pattern (there are many). I bought Little Box of Socks which, despite being published by Martingale press (I find their stuff is usually more homely than my personal style), it's actually pretty cool. There are way more interesting than non-interesting sock patterns in the mix. However, the non-interesting socks are pretty wild (ack! Save the Fun Furs!). Socks, I guess, are pretty hard to bork.

I do though still really love the Lorna's Laces yarn I'm working with, which is why I'll use it again in a different sock. Hopefully the next sock won't be quite as complicated. With all the other personal things I've had going on, I'm not sure I'll be able to deal with anything too complicated.

Speaking of too complicated, I started working on Jeanie from Knitty. I had cast on and done a row, but I think I borked the second row so instead of taking it back I just decided to re-do the whole thing. in re-looking at it though, it really looks like it's just an odd kind of rib for the most part. So I re-cast on and worked the first row again, and hopefully this time I'll be able to focus enough to actually knit it correctly. I've got a four hour train ride to Rhode Island this weekend, so I should be able to put some sort of dent into it.

We all need a little SEX sometimes...

Stash Enhancement eXperiences for you perverts out there.

I seem to be buying up my weight in yarn. It seems like I'm sticking to the laceweight and sock yarn as of late though.

First up is my own little tribute to Gramps. I bought it the day after he died because, well...touching something so soft was extremely soothing. And it's such a vibrant alive redish marroon I just had to have it:

As the tag says, it's from J.Knits. Lace-A-Licious is the name and i think the color is called Indiana or something along those lines. It's an alpaca laceweight and runs about 1200 yards which is pretty phenomenal. I could get another Icarus out of it, but I think I'll probably use it for one of the other myriad of shawls I currently have queued.

Next up, I met my friend Illana (that's a Ravelry link folks) for some good mediteranian food in Park Slope. I had de-stashed to her two and a half skeins of Twinkle's uber bulky yarn that I accidentally managed to get for $10 a ball (I KNOW!! Way cheap right!?). She told me to pick something from her stash I liked as an exchange. So I got this sexy looking thing:



That's STR lightweight yarn. I'm not sure of the colorway, I want to say it's flower power or something like that. I've used the STR mediumweight, but find that the socks I got out of it were a little too thick for my liking. They're really warm, they just don't fit in my sneekers. So I've wanted to test the lightweight stuff for forever, and this color way is just PRICELESS. It's actually really made me want to seriously lobby my parents come Christmas time for the STR Rockin Sock Club.

I also managed to get out of the deal this cute little number:


That's some sweet looking Malabrigio Laceweight yarn. I'm not sure what the colorway is called, but isn't it gorgeous? So, I think it was a pretty good trade. I got some smaller yarn out of it anyway. I should mention that those two photographs were Illana's, not mine. I never had anywhere near that amount of natural light when I take photos of my yarn. :(

I started organizing my yarns a bit more, in that I now have one BIG bag that I've been putting two smaller bags in. One of the smaller bags is laceweight yarn and the other is sock weight yarn. Those seem to be the two kinds of yarn I've been buying recently. They're easy to pack up with me when I go back to NY from wherever it is I've been, and I don't have to buy a ton of it at the same time.

That said, I'm just now knowing the wonders of a sweater that fits well. I LOVE wearing my TYC around. It's just the right weight. Most of my other finished sweaters I think are a little too warm actually, which surprises me because i'm usually always cold no matter what. My TYC actually keeps me warm, but not too warm.

Aditionally, I just cast on for Jeanie from Knitty. I have really only completed a row so far, so it's not even really worth showing a photo. The project looks somewhat challenging, but I'm sure that once I get into the pattern, it'll fly by.