New Goats Milk Soap!

Handmade Pumpkin Spice Sheep Goat's Milk Soap This bar is a large bar of approximately 4 1/4 oz of Pumpkin Spice Goats Milk Soap. Each bar was individually poured into a Sheep Soap Mold. Then when cooled were individually wrapped to preserve the soap. Ingredients: Glycerin, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Lauric Acid; Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sorbitol, Triethanolmaine, Sodium Chloride, Goat's Milk Powder, EDTA, Titanium Dioxide, Pumpkin Spice Oil Fragrance, Orange Dye.

Knitting at the crack of dawn

I couldn't sleep this morning so I got up and went downstairs and started knitting around 5:20 AM on my red and white shawl. I'm not exactly sure just how many rows I knitted in 1 hour and 39 minutes but I now have 164 stitches on this shawl. The hearts on this shawl are really starting to make the shawl look nice. I find myself adding more hearts 2 rows after I finished a complete heart. The hearts are spaced fairly evenly over the shawl. I even have some interlocking hearts added in.

After I finished 1 hour and 39 minutes of knitting on this shawl I stopped to fix myself some breakfast, fold some laundry, and wash the dishes. Then I started in knitting on my Frankenstein Clown Socks. I now have the heel finished on the mate and have started working on the leg of the sock. I sat and knitted on these for 1 hour and 40 minutes. I completed 35 rows on this sock during this time.

Now that its 9:33 AM I need to put another load into the washer, make the bed (now that hubby is up), put the dishes away, then head off to the bank. Once I'm finished with the bank hubby wants to go and get his hair cut, get the oil changed on the car, pick up 2 new kennels at Petco for 2 of our dogs (the kennels they are sleeping in are just too small for them now), then go over to Wal-mart to look for 2 lamps (for our bedroom). After that, when we get home I can sit at my spinning wheel and spin up some more yarn, and weave on my weaving loom.

I know that I will be tired come 9:00 PM tonight! Well, I sure hope so anyway's.

Merry Christmas from Spinning Ginny's

I would love to take this time to wish all my friends and Customers a very Merry Christmas. I've had a wonderful time these past 5 years knitting on socks, shawls, scarves, spinning up wool into yarn, weaving scarves, and making goats milk soap. I hope to continue doing these items for you all for a long time to come. Thank you again for being great friends and customers.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Ginny

New Item in Store

Handmade Candy Cane Goats Milk Soap: This bar is a large bar of approximately 4 1/2 oz of Candy Cane Goats Milk Soap. Each bar was individually poured into a Candy Cane Soap Mold, then individually wrapped to preserve the Soap. Ingredients: Glycerin, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Laurie Acid; Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Sorbitol, Triethanolmaine, Sodium Chloride, Goat's Milk Powder, EDTA, Titanium Dioxide, Holiday Candy Oil Fragrance, Santa Red Dye.

Available at: www.spinningginny.com

Limited Time Only!

New Goats Milk Soap

Last Tuesday I ordered new Soap Supplies. These supplies will be arriving on Thursday. These new soaps I'll be making are for a limited time only as they are going to be my Christmas Soaps.

These bars will have a Candy Cane design on the top of the soap and the fragrance will be Holiday Candy. I will be adding a red dye to give them that holiday color.

I will also be making a few more bars of my Christmas forest Sheep Goats Milk Soap, to replace the ones I've sold. I also need to make a few more bars of Gardenia Rose Goats Milk Soap.

I will be discontinuing my Baby Rose Cameo Goats Milk Soap, Fragrance Free Goats Milk Soap, and my Senseuous Sandalwood Goats Milk Soap.

First Snow fall of the season

While sitting in my chair in the livingroom crocheting an edge on my tri-loom shawl, I looked up and saw it was snowing. The flakes were just little flurries at the time. Then later when I looked up the flakes had grown in size.

As the day progressed and the edging on my shawl started taking shape the ground outside turned white (roughly 2 inches), and the trees glizzened with white. My backyard now looks like a picture postcard.

Tomorrow we'll have to shovel the driveway before we leave to go and get groceries for the week.

Tri-Loom Shawl

Well, I today off this shawl and took it off the loom. Once I had it off the loom I then crocheted around the 2 sides to give it some stability. Then I placed it in the sink and washed it, when I finished washing it I squeezed out as much water and soap as I could and then rinsed it in fresh water. Once I had that done I then squeezed out the water again, then I rolled it tightly in a towel to get more water out. When I had done that I then laid it out on my lap and started crocheting my decorative edging. I used some of my Majestic Sky Merino Silk in the lace edging as well as some of my left over Handspun White Merino Silk. I didn't put a lot of lace edging around this shawl just enough to give it that little extra something.

I need to take a picture of it and when I get it taken I'll add it to this post.

Weaving on my Tri-Loom

I started weaving on my 3 foot Tri-Loom last week. I had a skein of Majestic Sky Merino Silk that had only 179 yards to it instead of 232 yards like I have listed on my website. So I thought I'd see how a small shawl would turn out with this yarn.

I'm weaving a plain weave for this shawl instead of anything fancy. This is because I'm still learning how to do a basket weave on this loom. I haven't quite got the hang of that type weave on this loom and a plain weave is just easier right now. I almost have it finished and probably would have finished it sooner. However, sitting on the floor and weaving (due to my table being full with my 20 inch table top loom), is very uncomfortable after a while.

When I'm finished with the weaving I'll take it off the loom and crochet around the 2 bottom edges like I saw done on wildharefiber's tri-loom shawl. My shawl will be much smaller then her shawl as she wove her shawl on a 6 foot tri-loom and mine is being wove on my 3 foot tri-loom. I'm not sure though what contrasting color I'll start with for the lace edging though. I do have some some white handspun yarn that I can use with some more majestic sky merino silk.

First things first, though finish weaving it and take it off the loom.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year my hubby and I have much to be thankful for. We are thankful for being back in our home with no problems. Well, except for not a whole lot of furniture. See when we moved out to Yuma, AZ we got rid of all our furniture, as we wanted to keep the cost of the move down and we didn't think we thought our house would sell.

Well, the house didn't sell, so we packed up the little stuff we had (mostly my looms, spinning wheels, desk and bookcases), although, we did buy a couple of chairs to set on when we were living in Yuma, AZ. So here we are back in our own home with my stuff, 2 chairs, an air mattress (that we sleep on) and a table and chairs we just bought, so's we could eat our Thanksgiving dinner at.

We are also very thankful for the job that my hubby found a week after we arrived back home. He will be teaching at the A&P School in Lexington, MA., teaching the students how to work on helicopters. Right now though, he's only assisting the other instructors until his teaching creditals are approved.

We are also very thankful for all our family members and their support in our decision to move back home. We pray that everyone including all the military over in Iraq and Afghanastan have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

God Bless!!!

Fall has definitely arrived

Well, fall has definitely arrived here in Winchendon, MA. Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees and are laying all over the yard and in my flower beds, although there are a few leaves still clinging to the branches on some trees. I really should be outside raking up these leaves but with fall also comes my much needed time to make up batches of Handmade Goats Milk Soap.

So its off to the basement were my hubby and I set up my table with all my soap supplies and ingredients. I have a soap kettle on my table that I plug in and add all my ingredients to to make up my soaps. I have an order for 10 White Lavender Sheep Goats Milk Soap w/Lavender buds and 10 Purple Lavender Sheep Goats Milk Soap w/Lavender buds to make up. These soaps are sold through http://www.lavendersheep.com/ so you can see what they look like there.

Once I this order is filled I will need to make some more White Christmas Forest Sheep Goats Milk Soap as well as some others bars. I probably should order some new molds and some new fragrances as well. I do have some Sensuous Sandalwood Goats Milk Soap, Baby Rose Cameo Goats Milk Soap, White Gardenia Rose Goats Milk Soap, as well as some Fragrance Free Goats Milk Soap.

So raking the leaves will just have to wait until after I've finished making up more Goats Milk soap. Maybe by that time the remaining leaves will have fallen off the trees.

Back in the grove again

Spinning Day at Spinning Ginny's is just starting. Choo-Choo (lower right), Sue-Chi (upper right), Brutis & Ti (upper left). They like to curl up where the sun comes in from the windows of my Spinning Room. They keep me company while I spin (even if they sleep through it all).

My Spinning Wheel is all ready for me to start spinning up more Majestic Sky Merino Silk. I had started spinning this up originally in Yuma, Arizona. I had even knitted a pair of socks out of a skein of yarn that I had spun up while there. Then I spun up another skein of yarn just before packing everything up to move back home to Winchendon, MA. Yesterday I spun up another skein of yarn and listed 2 skeins in my store at http://www.spinningginny.com/ . I still have a lot more to spin up, so I just might get another skein or 2 added to my store.

I just finished carding up some Red Merino with some White Merino to make some Christmas Yarn. I'm spinning this on my Schacht Drop Spindle. This yarn is starting to remind me of Peppermint Candy. I haven't decided what I'll knit with it when I get all the wool carded and spun. Although, a nice warm sweater would be nice....or a nice warm hat.....or scarf.....maybe even some mittens......now that the weather is getting colder.

Lap Dog, Knitting and watching old Addams Family reruns

This morning after I set up my computer to watch some old Addams Family re-runs and knit on the mate to my hubby's socks that I'm knitting him for Christmas. Then up in my lap my dog Sue-chi jumps and gets all comfy. She's never laid in my lap while I've knitted before, so this was a first.

The Addams family tv show that I was watching was about Grandma learning to paint from a Sam Piccasso. While watching this show Sue-chi was snoring away in my lap and my knitting needles were clicking away. I am almost ready to start the gusset on this sock, I only need to knit 20 more rows.

Ti one of my other dogs likes to sleep in my lap as well as Sue-chi but he doesn't like me to be knitting as the yarn tickles him. Well, now that Season 1 Episode 14 of the Addams family is over its time to watch Episode 15. Have to wake the sleeping princess though to change the disk.

Snowy Night Gansey Stocking3

Day 3: Dispite the fact that my blood sugar dropped to 90 (low but in the normal range) and making me very tired. I managed to finish this Stocking today and start on another one in cherry red. The one I just finished was in a Paddy Green color for my husband and this new one in cherry red will be mine.

These stockings are bigger then normal stockings due to the Red Heart Super Saver Worsted Weight yarn I used. I'm sure that if I had used a different Worsted weight yarn they might have been the size the pattern says they should be. But I don't really mind and neither does my husband. He's tickled to death that I made him something. I don't get around to doing that very often. So busy making items for my website that he sort of gets neglected in the hand knitted or the handmade department.

Snowy Night Gansey Stocking2

Day 2: Hubby had a Dentist appointment this morning so I brought my knitting with me. I sat there knitting on this Stocking while he was getting his broken tooth looked at. I managed to get the Snow Flake pattern (2nd pattern), finished and started on the next pattern before hubby was finished. Then we drove to the bank and from there to make dog grooming appointments. Once that was done we came home and I went back to knitting.

I sat knitting on this stocking the rest of the day. I was able to finish up the last 2 remaining patterns on the leg and start on the heel flap. Once I finished up the heel flap I then started on the heel turn and gusset. When I finished up the gusset I measured from the heel flap to where I was and found I still needed 2 1/2 more inches to knit. I then continued knitting until 8:20 pm when I stopped for the night. I won't be knitting for the next 2 days as we need to pack up more boxes for our move back home. However, come Monday I'll be back to knitting on them again. I hope to finish this stocking on Monday. Then I can knit up another one.

Snowy Night Gansey Stocking

Day 1: Knitted a swatch first with red heart super saver #0368 Paddy Green, using size 7 dpn's. My guage was not right so had to move up to size 8 dpn's. Once I had the guage right I cast on the 72 stitches needed to knit this stocking. Then I knit the 10 rows for the cuff and once that was finished I started following the chart. Before heading to bed I will have the first 13 rows of the leg finished. Tomorrow I'll have the whole day to work on this stocking and hope to get lots done on it.

Finished 2 Lighthouse Dish Cloths

Yesterday I started on the first Lighthouse Dish Cloth and finished it up this morning. Then because I still had enough yarn I started and finished up a second one. These Dish Cloths knit up fast for me and so now that I have 2 finished, I can make up the labels for them and add them to my website. They will have to be packed up with the rest of my website items for our move back home to MA, but that's okay.

I only need to knit up 10 more of these Dish Cloths, but they will have to wait while I knit up other items too.

Knitting on Lighthouse Dish Cloth

Yesterday after finishing my 4th pair of socks this month, I decided to start knitting this Lighthouse Dish Cloth. I managed to get the Dish Cloth almost finished before going to bed last night. Then this morning I finished it up and decided to start on a second one. I'm using Peaches n Cream Light Blue Worsted Weight 100% Cotton Yarn, with size 7 circular knitting needles. The pattern was written by Rhonda K. White. I love knitting her Dish Cloth Patterns. They are really easy to follow along while knitting.

Tic Tac Toe Up Socks4

Tic Tac Toe Up Socks4
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Wooohoooo, I finished my Tic Tac Toe-up Socks today. I stopped packing long enough to finish this pair of socks. I just love this pattern. Yah, it wasn't as simple to memorize as the Diagonal Lace Socks or the Dead Simple Lace Socks. However, it was really fun to knit the X's and O's in these socks.

I did make a simple mistake in the mate this afternoon, but I fixed it and went on. The mistake was do to my not paying attention to the pattern as well as paying attention to my knitting.

I love knitting with Lorna's Lace Sock yarn and will definitely be ordering more to knit up socks with. There's lovely solids, multicolors and striping. I can't wait to try more of these yarns!

Moving

Moving home to Massachusetts. Our house didn't sell and we can't afford to pay the rent and a mortgage too anymore. So, here we are with most of our stuff still in boxes, (we did cut the boxes open to see what was in each box)except for my business stuff. Now we need to go around and retape each box and maybe repack some of them. Then repack all my business stuff, which we're doing a little each day. We repacked a lot of boxes yesterday, along with some dishes and kitchen items. Still need to pack up pots and pans though.

Our official moving day is October 23rd. Moving company is coming on Wednesday to give us a quote on what it will cost to ship my car, boxes and 2 chairs. When we moved out here in May we only had boxes on the moving van. We had drove my car out here, as hubby had flown back to Massachusetts and left his car here in AZ.

When I'm not packing though I'm knitting or reading emails. I will bring plenty of knitting on the trip home, as I just can't sit in the car and not do anything. Hubby likes to do all the driving, so this leaves me free to knit. LOL

Tic Tac Toe Up Socks3

Tic Tac Toe Up Socks3
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

I meant to finish up the first sock yesterday, but after knitting for so long I had to put it down for a few hours. When I picked it up last night to knit on, I only got a few more rows done on it. So first thing this morning at 6:08 am I picked it up and finished up the last bit of the leg and started on the 1 inch cuff (which is only 10 rows for me). Then I put it down to go and eat breakfast, only to come back and cast off the stitches on this sock.

Shortly after that (while hubby was making a few phone calls), I cast on using Judy's Magic Cast On for the mate. I was able to get the cast on going better on this sock the first time around (no, loose cast on stitches). Because we had to go out and run a few errands, I was only able to get 38 stitches cast on. However, when we returned I sat down and finished casting on the remaining stitches (66 stitches total).

Now all I need to do is get busy knitting on the Tic Tac Toe Up pattern for the foot.

Tic Tac Toe up Socks2

Tic Tac Toe up Socks2
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Yesterday, I finished up the gusset on this sock and started on the heel turn and heel flap. I managed to get that done with no problems and then continued on. When I stopped knitting for the night I had the first 24 row pattern repeat on the leg almost finished.

This morning I picked it up and finished up the last 3 rows of the 24 pattern repeat. Then I continued on and did another 28 rows before stopping to fix breakfast. I should finish this sock either by tonight or early tomorrow morning. Then I can start on the mate.

Tic Tac Toe Up Socks

Tic Tac Toe Up Socks
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

I started on these socks yesterday around 11:36 am. However, I couldn't get my Judy's Magic Cast On to look right and kept frogging it. Finally after much practice I got it to finally look the way it was supposed to be. Before it was too loose and I couldn't tighten it up. I finally got it though.

Once I got the cast on squared away everything else started falling together. It was a little awkward at first doing this Magic Loop, but I'm used to it now. Last night I stopped knitting on this sock just 3 rows shy of finishing the second repeat.

This morning at 6:05 am I picked up my knitting and finished off the second repeat. I then measured the sock to see how much more I needed to knit before starting the gusset. I have 5 1/2 inches then and needed to have 6 3/4 inches. So I went back to knitting and completed half of another repeat measured again. I found that I now had 6 1/2 inches and only needed 1/4 of an inch left. I figured that was just 2 more rows, so I knitted 2 more rows and measured again. I was right! I now had the 6 3/4 inches I needed. I then knitted across the instep following the lace pattern and then on the sole I began the increase for the gusset.

I then put my needles down and went to fix myself some breakfast. I'll pick up where I left off here in a little while.

Diagonal Lace Socks3

Diagonal Lace Socks3
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Finished these socks this morning. Well, actually I finished one last night, and the mate this morning. I love the way these socks worked up. I might use a solid color though, on the next pair I knit with this pattern. I think the pattern in the yarn detracts from the pattern in the socks. I do love this yarn though and will definitely use it again, just not with this pattern.

Now I just need to make a label for these socks and another pair of socks then list them on my website. Then I need to look through patterns and yarn again and get busy knitting up another pair of socks.

Happy Knitting!

Another day another pair of sock almost finished

I've been so busy knitting on these [Diagonal Lace Socks](pattern) by Wendy Johnson, that I'm almost finished with them. I hope to finished them sometime today. I did make one mistake on both of these socks, when joining the instep to the heel flap. The mistake was due to a hole in one side of both socks, where the joining didn't come together very well.

I frogged back down on both of these socks to where the joining began and fixed my mistake. Now I have just need to finish up the legs on both these socks and knit the 1 inch cuff. The pattern looks great so far dispite the fact that the Diagonal Lace pattern goes in the opposite direction of the original pattern.

Good Spinning Day

Spinning Day at Spinning Ginny's went fairly well. I finished filling up the second bobbin and started plying up the 2 singles of Majestic Sky Merino/Silk. It really felt good to sit behind my spinning wheel and spin wool again.

Just the feel of the wool in my hands was enough to keep me spinning through out the day. Sometimes my hands would start to fall asleep or my feet would get tired moving the peddles up and down. When this would happen, I'd know that I had been spinning far too long and needed a break.

So up I'd get and take the dogs outside for their little romps in the backyard. When they were finished we'd come inside and I'd get something to drink and do some stretches etc. Then after about 20 minutes I'd go back to my spinning wheel, give it a good oiling again and then start spinning all over. All in all it was a good day of spinning.

Spinning Day at Spinning Ginny's

Well, I've been up since 4:30 am. Hubby was getting ready for work and my dogs woke me up. So after letting them out to do their thing, I decided to sit down at my spinning wheel and spin. I'm still spinning up my Majestic Sky Merino/Silk. I'm almost ready to ply up a third skein of yarn.

When I first started spinning up this wool I finished up a skein really fast then I knit up a pair of Ladies size 7 socks with it. They turned out great! I then spun up a second skein of yarn and put it on my desk to print up a label for it......never got around to printing up the label yet.

Then I got on this kick of using up some of my sock yarn stash to knit up socks for my website. This took me away from my spinning for a while..............hence not finishing spinning up this wonderful Majestic Sky Merino/Silk Wool.

Now that I'm making today my spinning day I may just get another skein spun up. I really want to finish spinning this wool up so that I can start spinning up my White faulkland Wool and my English Garden Merino Wool. I have lots of other wool in bags in my spinning room as well......just can't remember all the names of what I have.

I love sitting at my spinning wheel spinning up wool. I love spinning up new fibers as well as what I have left over on bobbins (have quite a few bobbins with left over spun yarn on them).

Really love spinning Llama and Alpaca as its really soft and spins up really fine. Now Camel Down is nice too but, I don't get a nice thinly spun yarn with it. Maybe its just the way I spin it or something like that. Spinning up Tussah and Silk blend wools are really nice too. This wool is soft and silky to touch and when knitted into socks, or scarves.......oooo, just love it.

I like to spin mostly on my Ashford Kiwi Student Spinning Wheel but I do have a Drop Spindle that I spin with now and then. I'm just not that good at spinning with a Drop Spindle as I am with my Spinning Wheel. I guess I just need to spin more with my Drop Spindle to get some more practice at it.

Anyway's its going to be a spinningly great day here at Spinning Ginny's. I'll be spinning all day long with breaks here and there to rest my hands. I'm putting my knitting on hold for today although, I do need to finish a pair of socks too.

Time to oil the spinning wheel for a long day of spinning.

Diagonal Lace Socks2

Diagonal Lace Socks2
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 2: I have now finished the 6 1/2 inches that I needed to knit before starting on the gusset. I've completed 4 rows of the gusset. I need to have 55 stitches on the sole of the foot for the gusset and so far only have 37 stitches.

Next time I knit these socks I may go down a needle size as up close these socks look like a large instead of a medium. I mainly use 2.75 mm dpns to knit my socks but I may have to invest in 2 mm dpns and smaller. I know that I want to try knitting socks with circulars some day so I may even buy some circulars in this size as well.

Diagonal Lace Socks

Diagonal Lace Socks
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 1: Actually started on these socks yesterday. Took the picture this morning. I had a little trouble with the figure eight cast on at first. My fingers were all thumbs and my hands were hurting that it made it hard for me to try and knit. So I put my knitting down for about an hour.

After resting my hands I came back to my knitting and was able to get the figure eight cast on to work on the first sock. However, by the time I had got 29 stitches cast on both needles (for a 58 stitches), I needed to stop and start cooking dinner.

Then after dinner I went back to my knitting and finished casting on the remaining stitches. I ended up with the 66 stitches that the medium pattern called for and then started working on the diagonal pattern design.

I put my knitting down finally at 11:01 pm last night with only the first sock cast on, with the first pattern repeat finished. Then this morning I cast on, usingin the figure eight cast on again for the mate. I didn't seem to have any problems with the cast on this morning.

I continued knitting on the second sock until I had all 66 stitches and the first pattern repeat finished. Now I can just work back and forth on both socks. I need to knit on the foot until I have 6 1/2 inches before I start on the gusset.

Onwards and Upwards!

Lacy Ribs Socks4

Lacy Ribs Socks4
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 4: Last night I finished the first sock and this morning I finished the mate. I really thought that the gusset, heel turn and heel flap on these toe up socks was going to be hard. However, I just followed the pattern and everything went just perfectly.

I love how they turned out! This yarn "Alchemy Juniper* Amethyst Colorway is just wonderful to knit with. The socks come out feeling really soft.

Oh and I'm loving all these Wendy Johnson patterns from her *Socks from the Toe-up* book. The patterns are just wonderful to knit from. They are really easy to understand and knit from.

I'm looking at possibly starting on another one today.

Lacy Ribs Socks3

Lacy Ribs Socks3
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 3: Yeah! I'm almost finished with the gusset. I have 5 more stitches to increase (2 on either side and 1 in the middle). Then I'm ready to start on the heel turn. So far it seems fairly easy.....well the gusset part does anyway. We'll see how the heel turn goes.

I've read the pattern through throughly and the heel turn sounds easy enough. However, I won't really now until I actually start working it. I'm used to doing socks from the top down and really know what to do when it comes to doing the heel flap and heel turn. This is only my third toe-up sock and my first with a gusset and heel turn in it.

I really love knitting with this Alchemy Juniper yarn. I've always loved knitting with my handspun merino but this is a 4 ply with very thin strands. Where as my handspun is a 2 ply worsted weight (I call it a lace weight, where some would call it a fingering weight), yarn. I will definitely buy more of this Alchemy Juniper. I know that it splits fairly easy, but so do a lot of yarns. I just have to pay more attention to what I'm doing when knitting.

Lacy Ribs Socks2

Lacy Ribs Socks2
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 2: I now have both socks started and the foot almost finished. They both measure 5 1/2 inches from the beginning of the toe. I only need to knit 3/4 of an inch before starting of the gusset.

The picture in the book shows the pattern of the sock stretched out on the feet. Off the feet the pattern is really puffy and pronounced. This could be due to my using a solid color for the socks, compared to the multi-colored sock in the picture.

I like the way they both look, solid or multi-colored. I am again using Alchemy Juniper but this time the color is Amethyst (purple). I'm on a solid color kick right now. Although, I do have some multi-colored yarn in my stash.

Even though, this yarn splits easy, I love the softness of this Merino yarn. This is only the second pair of socks I've knitted up with this yarn.

This pattern is only a 4 row repeat pattern, but I like to mark the beginning of the repeats with markers. I measure at the end of every 4th row to see how long the foot is. I need to start the gusset 3 inches short of the foot length. The total foot lenght for these socks is 9 1/4 inches (Size 6 1/2 Ladies). So I need to only knit 6 1/4 inches before I start the gusset, which means I only have 3/4 inches left to go.

Lacy Ribs Socks

Lacy Ribs Socks
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 1: (Actually last night) This pattern called for using either a Turkish cast-on, Figure 8 cast-on, or a Judy's Magic cast-on. Since I have never done either of these cast-on's, I choose the Judy's Magic cast-on. I had read on Ravelry that it was a fairly easy cast on to try, so off I went to try it out.

Now, I'm left handed and my knitting is actually backwards compared to a right handed knitter. So when I went to try Judy's Magic cast-on, it was very awkward to knit (no problems with the wraping the yarn around the needles). I think I pulled it off the needles 4 times last night before I finally got it knitted right.

Once I had the first row knitted, the adding stitches at the beginning and end of both needles wasn't a problem. After 1 hour and 36 minutes of knitting I had the toe and the first pattern repeat (4 rows), finished.

Now, I just need to start on the mate and get it caught up with this sock. Onwards and upwards from here on in. LOL

Dead Simple Lace Socks5

Dead Simple Lace Socks5
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 5: Finishing Day! Yippee! Hooray! First sock finished for the SKASEP09 Sockdown. Oooo, I just love these socks. They are just so, so soft! Yah, the yarn split some while I was knitting them, Other then that, no other problems occured.

This was my first ever Wendy Johnson toe-up pattern and I didn't have any problems with the pattern. I also did these socks taat on dpns. I just had a problem getting the measurement for the foot. That was my own problem though, as I didn't read the measurements that I wrote down right. So I ended up ripping out twice. After finally reading my foot measurements right on the third time, I was able to get the foot finished with no more problems.

I will definitely knit up more Wendy Johnson Toe-up socks in the future. I'll probably do one that has a different cast-on and different heel technique though. so that I can learn new techiques.

Dead Simple Lace Socks4

Dead Simple Lace Socks4
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 4: I was going to post this on Friday, hubby and I ran errands and I didn't get around to taking the picture until yesterday. Then I couldn't get my computer to upload this picture from my camera until today.

In this picture the leg is about 3 1/4 inches in length. The leg needs to be 6 1/4 inches long, so I only need to knit 2 more inches. Then I will knit a 1 inch cuff (like the pattern calls for), to make up the total length of the leg.

I hope to have these socks finished by Monday sometime.

Dead Simple Lace Socks3

Dead Simple Lace Socks3
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 3: This morning when I picked up my socks to start knitting on them. They didn't look long enough in the foot after I had finished the heel on one of them yesterday. So I looked in my note book for the measurements that I had wrote down for the size 6 ladies. I noticed that I wroted that the measurements from the heel to the ball of the foot were 7 1/4 inches. However, I also had wrote down that the toe measurements were 1 3/4 inches, so the total foot length was supposed to be 9 inches.

However, this was for a sock being knit from the top down. So with these toe-up socks I had to think differently. According to the book I needed to subtract 2 1/2 inches from the total foot length. But the toe on my socks was only 2 inches in length before the pattern started. So I only deducted 2 inches from the total length and that told me I needed to knit the foot of this sock 7 inches instead of 5 1/4 inches (which is what I had this morning).

So I frogged the heel and then knitted the foot to 7 inches in length on one sock, and then started knitting on the mate until I had 7 inches on it as well. After dinner I finally got the heel finished on the first sock and only just now finished the heel on the mate.

Tomorrow I can start knitting on the legs of these 2 socks.

Dead Simple Lace Socks2

Dead Simple Lace2
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 2: I now have 2 socks to knit on. I knit a few rows on one then put it down and knit the same amount of rows on the mate. I am now working on the heel on both socks.

I originally was going to make these socks a size 7 Ladies. Only I got a request for them to be made into a size 6 Ladies instead. So according to Wendy Johnson's book the foot should be 2 1/2 inches shorter then the desired length of 7 1/4 inches. So I deducted 2 1/2 inches from 7 1/4 inches and came up with 4 3/4 inches for the foot before working on the heel. That's what I have right now on the foot. So now I can continue working on the heel.

I'm really liking how this pattern looks with this yarn. I even think I'm getting better at knitting toe-up socks. Well, that's just my oppinion!

Dead Simple Lace Socks

Dead Simple Lace Socks
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Day 1 of skasep09. This morning I was up at 5:33 am, but I didn't start knitting on this sock until around 5:58 am. I started this sock with the provisional cast on of 32 stitches. I worked up until I had 12 live stitches (as I wanted a little bit smaller toe area). Then I started working down the other side of the toe until, I had 32 stitches back on my needles. That's where I stopped for now, on this sock. Now I just need to cast on for the second sock, as I want to work both at the same time.

I'm using Alchemy Juniper Champagne sock yarn for this pair of socks. The pattern I'm using is Dead Simple Lace Socks by Wendy Johnson. This is only my second pair of Toe-up Socks ever. I like this yarn so far as its really soft. This is the first time ever using this yarn. I do find that it splits fairly easy though, so I will have to watch my knitting with this yarn.

Patricias Socks2

I finished my mom's second pair of Cotton Lang Jawoll Socks. I finished them on Sunday August 30th. Yesterday I printed up the label for this pair of socks. Then I wrapped up both pairs and mailed them off. Unfortunately I forgot to take the picture of this pair of socks before wrapping and mailing them off to my mom. My mom's been so excited about getting these 2 pair of socks that, I just mailed them off with out thinking about taking the picture of the second pair. Oh well! Maybe my mom will take a picture of them for me and then I can post the picture later.

Warrens Socks

Warrens Socks
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

My brother called me last month right after my mom did and asked me to knit him up some black cotton socks. I told him sure, I can do that and off I went to look for some Black cotton sock yarn at Simply Socks Yarn Company.

I found a Charcoal Sock yarn that Lang Jawoll made and ordered 2 skeins. When the yarn arrived, I pulled out the first skein and started casting on for his socks. That was on August 9th. I got half way down the leg and pulled out the second skein to start knitting on the mate and realized that the colors didn't match. One skein was grey and the other was black. So off I went to order another skein of black and then went back to knitting on the first sock.

When the second skein arrived 3 days later I took it out and it matched. Yeah! I was able to start knitting on the mate. I was already on the foot of the first sock. I had to play catch up with this sock so's that they would match in length.

Last night I finished the first sock and this morning while I was at Starbucks, with the Yuma Yarnies Group. I managed to finished the mate. Now I just need to wash, block, wrap, and ship them to my brother.

Patricias Socks1

Moms Socks1
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

My mom called me last month and asked me if I could knit her up a couple of pairs of cotton socks. I told her sure, I can do that. Do you want any particular color? Design? I asked. She told me just to make them plain and nothing fancy.

So off I went to look through the cotton yarns that Simply Socks Yarn Company had and found this on in the Lang Jawoll and another color that I'll show later as I'm working on them now.

I started knitting on them on August 7th and only just finished this first pair on August 25th. Normally it doesn't take me very long to knit socks up. But I've had a lot of things happening to keep me from my knitting, spinning, weaving, crocheting, and soap making.

Now that things have slowed down I'll get my mom's second pair finished faster.

Yellow Yarn

Yellow Yarn
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This yarn was ordered from Simply Socks Yarn Company for the SKA Sockdown September. The Sockdown will be using solid yellown sock are as the September Technique. There will also be a Mystery sock written by Nancy Bush and this sock will have to be knit in Yellow. Another choice is to do a Wendy Johnson Toe-up sock in any color or in yellow, or you can do any sock pattern but in yellow.

I know that two of these skeins will be done using a Wendy Johnson Toe-up pattern. I just haven't decided yet if I'll use the other two in the Mystery Sock Pattern by Nancy Bush or another sock pattern. Hmmm, guess I'll just decide next month. LOL

I was orginally going to spin up some yellow wool. However, I still need to finish spinning up my Majestic Sky Merino/Silk, before I start spinning up other fibers. But I will eventually spin up some yellow wool one of these days. LOL

New Wool

Yesterday the postman rang the bell and my 4 shih tzu's went ballistic as usual. I went to the door fighting my way through dogs that wanted out of the house to chase and play with the postman. LOL I opened the door just wide enough to look out and find a box left for me. This box contained the new wool that I had ordered on Saturday.

I brought the box inside the house, told Choo-Choo, Sue-chi, Brutis and Ti to hush and then walked down the hall to my spinning room. I placed the box on the floor (without even opening it), and proceeded back into the living room, where I was knitting on my mom's and brother's socks.

Later that night, after hubby came home and dinner was eaten, I proceeded to open the box. My hubby loves the English Garden Wool. I have plans already for the White Falkland Wool. I think after I get it spun up I will be dying it. I haven't decided on what the colors will be as of yet. But if anyone has some suggestions, I'd be willing to look into it.

Ginny

New wool and sock yarn coming

Saturday August 15th I was looking on the internet for some more wool (like I seriously need more wool), to spin up into yarn. I found 1 lb of White Falkland wool and 1 lb of English Garden Merino. So I ordered that and it should be arriving soon. Now I just need to finish spinning up my Majestic Sky Merino.

Tuesday August 18th (after spending some time at Starbucks with the Yuma Yarnies (knitting group), I came home and ordered 1 skein of Black Lang Jawoll Cotton 04 Yarn (to knit up the matching sock for my brother, as one of the skeins I bought didn't match), 2 skeins of Alchemy Juniper Champagne, and 2 skeins of Lang Jawoll Solid 43. This yarn is for the SKA Sockdown in September. I'm hoping to knit up 2 pairs of new socks.

I'm looking forward to this wool and sock yarn to arrive. Then when its time to spin up the wool I'll have more then enough to spin up. I'll also have more sock yarn ready to be knit into socks come September. Can't Wait!!!!

Ginny

Books and Supplies

There comes a time when you see some books that you just have to have. Well, I did that just the other day. I found two great books on socks that I'd heard so much about and just had to have them. However, I bought 2 of each. One of each I will keep for my reference and the others I have added to my website. These books that I just recently bought were "Socks from the Toe up by Wendy Johnson", and "Socks Inovation by Cookie a.".

So go ahead and check these books out if you haven't already done so. Then treat yourself to a varied selection of sock patterns, that will inspire you to knit some socks.

______________________________________________________________________

A few fun additions....

I picked up a few items that for those of us that love to knit can add our knitting bags. Even if you already have 2 of these items........you some how can't find them.........and so you pick up the sweet little addition or the practical and just let it go at that.

Susan Bates Knit-chek
Clover Point Protectors (Small & Large)
Barrel Counters
Plastic Tapestry Needles
Measuring Tapes

Spinning Ginny's Handspun Yarn and Other Gifts

Here at Spinning Ginny's I'm up at the crack of dawn Monday through Friday. I start off knitting first thing in the morning. Then I move onto Spinning, Weaving, and crocheting. Then I'm back to knitting again, before the day is done. Occasionally, I get in some soap making as well. Mostly I start working on that in the fall when its not so hot. I sometimes even do a little dying of yarns, but that too doesn't happen very often.

Right now I'm knitting on a shawl, and 3 pairs of socks. Well really only 2 pairs right now as all my DPN's are being used. The Shawl I'm knitting on is called a Cat's Paw Shawl and I actually started on it back in June. This shawl is coming along great, and as of this morning I now have 453 stitches on my needles. I need to knit with the Cat's Paw pattern until I have 485 stitches. Then I'll change over to an Old Shale pattern to give the bottom of the Shawl a lacey edge.

Now, the socks I'm knitting on are for my Mom and Brother. I still need to start on my Mom's second pair, but need to free up some DPN's before I can. I have the cuff finished on one pair of my mom's socks and 18 rows past the cuff of Stockingnet stitch. I also have the cuff finished on my Brother's pair of socks with 18 rows past the cuff of Stockingnet stitch. These socks that I'm knitting on right now are being knitted with Lang Jawoll Cotton Sock Yarn.

Spinning time comes normally around 9:21 give or take a few minutes. I usually spin for 1 hour and 36 minutes. I love to spin up new colors of wool as well as ones that I have spun up in the past. I have spun Merino, Coopworth, Blueface Leicester, Corriedale, Falkland, Colonial, Camel down, Llama, Alpaca and Merino/Silk Blends. I love the feel of each one of these and look forward to spinning every day. I knit scarves, shawls and socks from some of my handspun yarns.

Weaving time comes right after I finish spinning. I weave for 1 hour and 37 minutes. I love to weave Dish Towels, Scarves, and Table runners. Right now I'm weaving on some Dish Towels and have the first Towel finished and the second one started. I'm weaving these on my 36" floor loom right now, as my 20" table top loom has a project on it as well. My small Triangle loom doesn't have anything on it at the moment, nor does my Tapestry loom or my Inkle loom. I just haven't had time to work on them yet. However, I will get to them one of these days.

Crocheting time comes after lunch time and I usually crochet for 1 hour and 39 minutes. I love to crochet Doilies, Shawls, and Afghans. Although, I haven't crocheted any Doilies in a couple of years. I only just completed a Crocheted Stole back in June and listed it in my store. Right now I'm crocheting on a Small Throw and its about partially finished. I'm usinig Lion's Brand Handspun Yarn on this Throw and the Stole I finished and have listed in my store was made from the same yarn, just a different color.

Around 4:00 pm I usually go back to knitting again, but this time on Socks. I stop around 5:30 pm. Then its time for Dinner and after dinner I'm back to knitting on socks again until bedtime.

Ginny

Anastasia Socks

Anastasia Socks
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Started these socks on July 30 for the SKAJUL09 Sockdown. I hand only just finished spinning and plying up this Majestic Sky Merino/Silk to knit these socks with too. I found this pattern Anastasia Socks on Ravelry and thought they'd look great with this yarn.

However, when I chose the pattern I didn't know that they were toe-up socks. I decided to knit them anyway's as I've never knitted a pair of toe-up socks and when I saw that they had a short row heel for the heel instead of a gusset/heel turn/heel flap, I thought wow, this could work up fast and easy. Well, it did!

I managed to finish the first sock (one on the right) on Monday, August 4th. Then on Tuesday August 5th I started on the mate. I finished the second sock today (one on the left).

I found these socks to be very fun to knit as well as very easy. I love them and will be knitting up some more in the future. The only change I made to these socks, was the length in the leg (4 inches) and the cuff I added 9 more rows to give me a 2 inch cuff. The leg still measures 6 inches like the pattern says though.

The socks are very comfortable too. Since the yarn has some silk in it, it makes the socks very soft and silky to wear. I love to spin up my own yarn, but I do occasionally buy yarn to knit with too.

First Dish Towel Finished

First Dish Towel Finished
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

I finished the first Dish Towel yesterday. Now I'm ready to do a hem stitch on the end of this towel, like I did at the beginning of the towel. Then I'll weave 4 rows using one of the colors in the towel for a cutting line between the next towel. Then I'll weave 18 rows of white for the hem on the second towel and do another hem stitch. The 18 rows at the beginning and end of each towel will be where I fold it up for the hem to be sewing after washing.

I have 2 more towels to weave in this pattern. I don't exactly know if I'll get more or not out of this warp. We'll see after I finish the next 2 towels. I can't wait to finish all 3 towels and take them off my loom, wash them and hem them up.

First Anastasia Sock Finished

First Anastasia Sock Finished
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

This sock was knitted with my Handspun Majestic Sky Merino/Silk. Its my second cast on for the July Sock down 09. When I chose this pattern I didn't realize it was a Toe-up sock. However, I've been wanting to try to knit up a pair of Toe-ups. The last time I had tried to knit up a pair I had got to the heel gusset/heel turn/heel flap area and got really confused so frogged it.

This pattern wasn't confusing at all the provisional cast-on was very easy to do. The pattern itself was very easy to knit and I pretty much had it memorized by the time I got to the leg. The heel according to the pattern was a short row heel. I'd done a few of those so I thought that wouldn't be a problem. Although, doing it backwards (foot to leg) wasn't too bad and actually made my heel look better. When I do the short row heel from the leg down, I can't seem to get the stitches on one side to tighten up like the other side. Working the short row heel from the foot up worked a lot better.

I love this pattern and will be knitting it again!

First Stripe Finished

First Stripe Finished
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

On July 30th I posted a picture showing that I had the front of the loom tied off and ready for weaving. Since then I've been weaving on this first Dish Towel and have finished the first stripe. Now I just need to weave the second and third stripe. The weaving is going really fast now, so I should soon have the first Dish Towel done, then start on the second Dish Towel.

I'm loving how the colors are looking so far in this Dish Towel. Even the stripe is making it look nice. I can't wait to see how the other 2 Dish Towels will look when they are finished.

2nd Cast on

2nd Cast on
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Last Thursday I finished spinning up this Majestic Sky Merino/Silk. I then decided it would become a pair of Adult Ladies Socks Size 7. The pattern I chose for this pair of Socks is called "Anastasia Socks". These socks are knitted from the toe up and since I've never knitted toe up socks before, I thought what the heck give it a try.

I then started reading the pattern and following the directions on the provisional cast on for the toes. Since this picture was taken I have finished the foot, short-row heel and I'm now on the leg of the first sock. I need to take a picture of how this sock looks now.

First though, I need to finish spinning up a second skein of yarn to start on the mate to this sock, once the first sock is finished.

Front of Loom finally tied off

Front of Loom
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Yesterday I finally got the front of my loom tied off for the Dish Towels I'm going to weave. I wove a header to start with drawing the threads together before I started the actual weaving process. Then after I wove the header I started weaving on the Dish Towels. I wove 8 rows out of 18 rows of white. I need to weave 18 rows of white as this will become the hem.

Once the 18 rows of white for the hem is finished, I will weave 7 inches in white. Then I will work on the first stripe with 6 rows of Rust, 4 rows of White, 12 rows of Rust, 4 rows of White, and 6 rows of Rust. Then I will separate this stripe with 8 rows of White and begin the second stripe with 6 rows of Blue, 4 rows of White, 12 rows of Blue, 4 rows of White, and 6 rows of Blue. Then I will separate this stripe with 8 rows or White and begin the third stripe with 6 rows of Green, 4 rows of White, 12 rows of Green, 4 rows of White, and 6 rows of Green. Once these three stripes are wove I will weave another 7 inces of White and then an extra 18 rows for the hem. This will finish Towel #1.

As for Towel # 2 and # 3 I haven't quited decided on the striping pattern just yet. When I get there I'll decide. I'll post more pictures as the towels show more progress.

Berlin Muster

Berlin Muster
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

I started knitting this pair of socks on July 14th for the Sockdown July 2009 in Sock Knitters Anonymous. I found this pattern on Ravelry and loved the design. I decided to use some of my handspun pine merino to knit these socks, as I thought the pattern would look good with this color yarn.

My youngest son PFC Calhoun Adam S. from Ft Bliss TX, was visiting when I started knitting on them. I didn't knitt on them much while he was here so's that I could visit with him. I enjoyed his visit so much that I hated to see him leave. He will be leaving again for his third tour overseas.

When I first started knitting this socks I didn't know that there was a diagram on the last page of the pattern I printed out. So I was reading the written out part and goofed. So I ripped back down to the cuff after my son left and restarted the pattern. I found that I was doing k3tog on stitches that were supposed to be Sl 1, k2tog, psso. I felt like an idiot for making such a stupid mistake. Oh well, I'll definitely rememeber not to do that again.

Thanks Kristen for writting up such a beautiful pattern!!

Ginny

July 12th Finished Socks

July 12th Finished Socks
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Finally I finished this pair of Socks that I started back on June 17, 2009. I started them as my second pair of Sock Down June 2009 socks. However, things kept coming up that kept me from finishing them up. I still finished them before the deadline of July 31, 2009 though.

I did have one sock finished back in June and the mate started around the end of the month. Then on my birthday July 4th I hurt my back and was in so much pain that I couldn't knit on the mate very much. Then my youngest son came to visit from El Paso TX on July 7, 2009. So I didn't work on them much last week. My son is leaving this weekend to go back to Ft Bliss where he's stationed in the Army there. He leaves for Iraq sometime in Oct or Nov of this year for his third tour overseas. So I've been enjoying his visit since I hadn't seen him since Dec 2005. I keep forgetting that he's 6'1" and that I have to look up to him now. LOL

Now I'm off to visit some more with my son but I promise to get back to my knitting again soon. Hopefully by that time the pain in my back with have subsided and I can get back to my knitting again.

Pink Peach Merino Beaded Scarf

Pink Peach Merino Beaded Scarf
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Originally I started knitted on this scarf on June 11th. However, the beaded design I was using was different and too heavy at the bottom of the scarf. So I ripped it out and started all over again with a different design only to come up with the same problem. Then I came across this pattern with just a few beads at the beginning that I could repeat at the end of the scarf. I liked how this was coming out so continued knitting on it. I finished it first thing this morning. The ending of the scarf where I finished it off didn't scallop as much as in the begining but it still turned out very pretty I think anyways.

This scarf was knitting using my Handspun Pink/Peach Merino yarn and some White Pearl Glass E Beads. This scarf is 100% Merino Wool dyed Pink/Peach. Measurements are 8 1/2 inches wide by 40 inches long.

Threading the Heddles

Threading the Heddles
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Yesterday I finished threading the reed with half my warp. Then I started threading the heddles. I only got about 1/4 of the warp threaded though and then this morning finished threading up the rest. I still need to finish warping the last remaining threads before I can finish threading the reed and heddles.

However, in this picture you can see more of what the colors in the dish towels will look like. You can see the strips of White, Rust, Blue, and Green much better now. Hopefully soon you'll be able to see more then just this part of the progress.

June 17th Cast on

June 17th Cast on
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Yesterday I started on a second pair of socks for the SKA Sock Down June. I'm using my own handspun olive green merino yarn. The pattern I am designing myself.

So far I've knitted 16 rows of the pattern I've made up and its looking okay so far. I'm knitting a lace pattern but I haven't come up with a name for it just yet. Maybe by the time I finish with the first sock I'll come up with a name for this pattern.

Cast on: 6/17/09
Finish: TBD
Pattern: DYO
Yarn: My Handspun Olive Merino Yarn
Needles: 2 mm DPN's

Warping the Loom

Warping the Loom
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Well, I'm now starting to warp my loom for the Dish Towels that I want to weave. The part on the left of the picture is what I have threaded through the reed right now. The other half still needs to be threaded. I also still need to warp up the rest of the warp on my warping board. However, the warping process has begun.

These dish towels will be woven from a kit I bought from Halcyon Yarn Company. The colors in the Towels will be White, Rust, Blue and Green. They will be woven in a plain weave with no fancy design except for the color pattern. Each towel will have the same striping in the vertical but the horizontal pattern will change up a bit from the first towel.

I hope to have my loom warped up all the way soon with some weaving started. I'll post more pictures as I get further along on the weaving. I can't wait to start the weaving process.

June 10th finished Socks for Sockdown June

June 10th finished Socks
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Well, I finally did it. I finished my first pair of Socks for the Sockdown June. I'm very pleased with how these socks came out. Dispite the fact that the book I took the pattern from matches another pattern to the tee. Oh well!

Now I'm off to finish warping up my loom to start weaving on some Dish Towels. Then in between weaving I'll knit on a shawl from my Handspun White Blueface Leicester Wool. Then I need to knit up a scarf, crochet a shawl, and knit up some more socks. LOL

June 5th working on foot of Sock for Sockdown June

June 5th working on foot of Sock
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

On Thursday morning I sat down a little after 6 am and started knitting on this sock again. I stopped around 8:15 am so's I could have breakfast. Then around 9:40 am I went back to knitting and finished up the heel flap, heel turn and started on the gusset. I continued knitting until around 12:25 pm and stopped for lunch. Then after lunch around 1:55 pm I went back to knitting and when I stopped for the day, I had the gusset finished and now all I need to do is finish up the remainder of the foot and then work on the toes and bind off.

Friday I wasn't able to work on my knitting as I was running errands all day long. However, today I hope to get a little knitting time in and finish up this sock and start on the mate.

June 4th working on leg of sock for Sockdown June

June 4th working on leg of sock
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

My first sock for the Sockdown June project is coming along great. This picture shows the cuff finished and and leg almost finished. I only need to knit 1 1/2 more inches on the leg and I'll be ready to start on the heel flap and heel turn.

The pattern is really looking great. I was hoping that it would work out and so far it is. This pattern is a 16 row pattern so I don't think I'll have too many repeats on the leg. I'm guessing but I think I'm only going to have 4 repeats of this pattern for the leg. I could be wrong though.

June 3rd Cast on

June 3rd Cast on
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

Yesterday I joined the Sock Knitters Anonymous Group on Ravelry.com. I saw that they had a Sockdown in June. Since I had never heard of this I thought I'd read up on it and see what all you had to do to join in. After finding out what I needed to do I set about looking through my yarn and some patterns.

I finally decided to used some of my Handspun Pink/Peach Merino and removed 2 skeins from my online store to knit up a pair of socks with. Then this morning I wound 1 skein into a ball and decided on a pattern to use and started casting on.

Cast on: June 3, 2009
Finished Date: TBD
Pattern: My own
Yarn: My Handspun Pink/Peach Merino
Needles: 2mm

I’m using a leaf lace pattern I found in a stitch dictionary for my socks. I'm hoping that it turns out well, as I'd like to do this pattern again later.

Dumbledore Size 7 Socks

Dumbledore Size 7 Socks
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

I started knitting on these cute little Toddler Socks Size 7 on May 25, 2009. Being as busy as I am knitting, weaving, crocheting and making goats milk soaps I didn't get them finished until yesterday. Normally I would have had 1 pair finished in a day and a half, if I was able to knit on them all day.

The cuff on these socks measure 1 inch, the leg measures, 3 5/8 from the cuff to the heel flap. The heel flap measures 1 3/4 inches. The foot measures 4 inches and the toes measures 1 1/4 inches. The total foot measures 5 1/4 inches. The total number of stitches needed for this pair of socks is 40 stitches.

I can usually get 2 1/2 pairs of these socks out of 1 skein (100 grams).

Crocheted Rectangular Shawl

Crocheted Rectangular Shawl
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

I started crocheting on this Shawl May 12th. I haven't crocheted in over 2 years but thought this would be a nice project to get me to pull out the crochet hooks again.

I used Lion Brand Homespun Yarn for this shawl and thought it turned out really nice. I have never used this yarn before and thought it would be nice to try out.

Lupin Socks Size 5

Lupin Socks Size 5
Originally uploaded by http://www.flickr.com/people/38484177@N04/

I started knitting on these Opal Harry Potter (Lupin) Socks Size 5's on May 2, 2009, while traveling from Massachussetts to Arizona. I finished the first pair of socks on May 3, 2009. I knitted up 3 1/2 pairs of socks out of a 100 gram ball.

I'd start knitting around 7:30 am and stop when we'd get to a rest stop or have lunch. Then when we'd get back on the road again I'd start knitting again. I'd finally stop for the day around 4 or 4:30 pm.

Knitting on the road helped to pass the time.

Knitting Socks in the Car

Well, I thought I would be starting on a new pair of Toddler Socks. However, I still had lots of Opal Harry Potter (Tonks) Sock Yarn left. So I have been just knitting up these Tonks Toddler Size 4 Socks. I have 4 1/2 pairs knitted up so far, but 3 of these pairs I had knitted up pior to leaving Massachusetts. I am almost finished with the last sock and will finish it up tomorrow and then will start on a new pair of socks.

Then new pair of socks will be knitted from some Opal Harry Potter (Lupin) Sock Yarn. I will be knitting Toddler Socks Size 5 with this yarn. I will have to take the pictures after we arrive in Yuma, AZ, as my camera is packed in with our house hold stuff. I didn't have room for it in my suitecase.

Knitting in the car helps to pass the day. My husband likes to do all the driving so I'm free to sit and knit as much as I want to.

Knitting in the car

Today was our first day of our trip to Yuma, AZ. So after being in the car for a little over an hour, I pulled out my knitting and started knitting on some Tonks Toddler Socks Size 4. I managed to get 30 rows knitted before we stopped to rest, stretch and let our shih tzu's out for a walk. When we finally got back on the road and had been driving for a while, I picked up my knitting again. When we finally stopped for lunch I had the cuff, leg, heel flap and heel turn finished. After lunch, and a nice walk with my dogs to stretch our legs and all that other good stuff we got back on the road. Once on the road, I picked up my knitting again and managed to finish up the first sock and start on the mate before putting my knitting away for the day. I ended up knitting 120 rows total between 1 completed sock and starting on the mate to it. Tomorrow I should have this pair of socks completed, and then I'll start on some new socks.

Tonks Toddler Socks Size 4

Tonks Toddler Socks Size 4
Originally uploaded by Spinningginny46

Okay all my packing is done for now. So I'm back to knitting away the days until my hubby comes home. So on April 11th, I started knitting up some more Toddler Socks Size 4 to add to some that I already have for my website.

When I'm not running errands I can knit up 1 pair in a day. However, when your getting ready to move all kinds of errands come up that you need to run during the day. So at night I sit on the couch and knit for about 3 1/2 hours before going to bed.

Sometimes I'm up bright and early (like 5:30 am) and I'll sit on the couch and knit for 1 1/2 hours before fixing my breakfast and figuring out what errands will need to be run that day. Sometimes I'm lucky and I only have 1 or 2 errands that need to be done so I can knit more on that day.

Harry and Ron Childrens Socks Size11

Harry and Ron Childrens Socks Size11
Originally uploaded by Spinningginny46

Harry and Ron Childrens Socks Size11
Originally uploaded by Spinningginny46I started knitting on these socks on April 4th in between packing up boxes for our move to Yuma Arizonia. I really finished knitting up the first pair on the 8th of April and then started on another pair. I actually was able to knit 2 pairs plus 1 extra lone sock from this 100 gram ball of Opal Harry Potter Sock Yarn (Harry & Ron).

When I first started knitting on these socks I started with a design that I thought would work with 44 sts. However, I didn't care for the pattern so ripped it out and started over. Then when I was talking to my mom on the phone (she lives in CA). We discussed diamond shapes and I came up with a fairly nice diamond pattern for this pair of socks.

This pattern was fairly simple with just some knits and purls placed evenly (or fairly evenly), through out the rows. One diamond is a little larger then the ones opposite it. However, it really gave the socks a nice look. You can't really see the pattern in the picture due to the different colors in the yarn. So down the road I might look through my stash (once I'm settled), in Yuma AZ and see if I can find some solid color sock yarn and knit up some more.

I had kept out some sock yarn as well as some Cotton dish cloth yarn to knit with in the evenings. This gives me something to do at night while watching tv. Now that most of the household items are packed up I'll go back to knitting more to pass the time until we leave. Which will be sometime after the 24th of April, in the meantime I'll keep on knitting away the days.

Harry Childrens Socks Size 10

Harry Childrens Socks Size 10
Originally uploaded by Spinningginny46

When i'm not packing boxes for our move to Yuma, Arizonia, I'm knitting on socks. This pair of Childrens socks size 10 was knitted from some Opal Harry Potter (Harry) Sock Yarn.

I love knitting cables and since this pair of socks was knit with 44 stitches I had to come up with my own design. So I started out with the 44 stitches and did a k1, p1 on the cuff for 1 inch. Then I started working on the leg. I decided to p3, sl 3 sts on cn, and hold them in front, then k3, k3 from cn, p2. I then repeated this around. The next 5 rows I p3, k6, p2 around. This worked out fairly well and gave me 4 nice cables evenly spaced. I repeated these 6 rows until the leg measured 4 3/8 with the cuff included.

Once the leg was finished I started on the heel flap and worked on it until it measured 1 7/8 inches. Then I worked on the heel turn. The foot of the sock I decided would be plain as I thought the cable would be too thick across the top of the foot. Probably not but, I just thought I'd leave the foot plain all the same. The foot measures from the back of the heel flap to the tip of the toes 6 1/4 inches.

I've since started on a second pair of these socks this morning. These were fun to make.

Ron Childrens Socks Size 9

Ron Childrens Socks Size 9
Originally uploaded by Spinningginny46

I decided that when I started knitting this pair of socks on March 20th, I'd knit them up a little different. So I cast on 44 stitches and then joined them in the round. The cuff I did a P1, K1 for 1 inch. Then I started making up the pattern as I went along. The pattern looks like arrows but could also be waves.

These socks were knit from some Opal Harry Potter (Ron) Sock Yarn, that I have in my stash. However, I can't up load the pictures of my Opal Harry Potter Sock Yarn as I now have it all packed for my move to Yuma Arizonia.

I should be able to get 3 pairs of Children's socks out of this 100 gram skein. I'm in the process of knitting up the second pair. I knit on these socks at night when I'm relaxing from packing all day.

Draco Childrens Socks Size 8

Draco Childrens Socks Size 8
Originally uploaded by Spinningginny46

Children’s Socks Size 8
© Designed By Virginia S Accurso
March 12, 2009

Materials:
1 skein of Opal Harry Potter (Draco) Sock Yarn
Size 2 /2.75 mm Double Pointed Needles

Instructions:
Leg:
Loosely cast on 44 sts. Arrange sts on 3 dpn as foll: 44 sts each on needle. Join for working in the rnd, being careful not to twist sts. K1, P1 rep from until piece measures 1 inch from beg.
Pattern:
row 1–k2tog, yo, k3, yo, sl 1, k1, psso, k4 repeat from.
row 2–knit
row 3–k1, yo, sl 1, k1, psso, k1, k2tog, yo, k5 repeat from.
row 4–knit
row 5–k2, yo, sl2, k1, psso, yo, k2, sl 2 sts onto cn and hold in front, k2, k2 from cn repeat from.
row 6–knit
Work rows 1-6 of pattern until leg measures 3 3/4 inches.
Heel Flap:
Work 22 heel sts back and forth in rows as follows (rem 22 sts will be worked later for instep):
row 1: k3, p19
row 2: p3, sl 1, k1, to last 3 sts and knit the last 3 sts. Work these 2 rows until heel flap measures 1 7/8 inches
Turn heel:
work short-rows as follows:
row 1: sl 1, p12, p2tog, p1
row 2: sl 1, k5, k2tog tbl, k1
row 3: sl 1, p6, p2tog, p1
row 4: sl 1, k7, k2tog tbl, k1
row 5: sl 1, p8, p2tog, p1
row 6: sl 1, k9, k2tog tbl, k1
row 7: sl 1, p10, p2tog, p1
row 8: sl 1, k11, k2tog tbl, k1
14 heel sts remain.
Heel Gusset:
Pick up and knit 14 sts along selvedge edges of heel flap and k22 sts across top of foot following pattern from above. Then pick up and knit 14 sts along right side of heel flap, knit first 7 heel sts again–64 sts total.
Row 1:
Needle #1 - knit across until 2 sts remain, ssk.
Needle #2 - knit according to pattern across instep.
Needle #3 - k2tog tbl, knit to end of needle.
Row 2:
Needle #1 - knit across needle until 3 sts remain, k2tog, k1.
Needle #2 - knit according to pattern across instep.
Needle #3 - k1, k2tog tbl, knit to end of needle.
Row 3:
Needle #1 - Knit to end of needle.
Needle #2 - knit according to pattern across instep.
Needle #3 - knit to end of needle.
Continue repeatin rows 2 & 3 unitil there are 11 stitches on each needle # 1 & 3.
Foot:
Work even in pattern until foot measurses 4 3/4 inches from back of heel.
Toe:
Knit 1 row plain.
Rnd 1: On needle 1, knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1.
on needle 2, k1, ssk, knit to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1.
on needle 3, k1 ssk knit to end.
Rnd 2: Knit.
Repeat rnds 1 & 2 until you have 24 sts. Then repeat rnds 1 until you have 8 sts remaining.
Finishing:
Weave toe using Kitchener Stitch and weave in all ends.

Aunt Pearl's Cabled Baby Blanket

Aunt Pearl's Cabled Baby Blanket
Originally uploaded by Spinningginny46

I was asked by a customer if I could knit up a baby blanket for her new little niece that will be born in a few weeks. I wrote back and said that I would love to knit up a baby blanket for her new little niece.

I then went looking for a cute baby blanket pattern online, as I didn't have any at that time. I found this cute pattern calle "Aunt Pearl's Cabled Baby Blanket". I love knitting cables and thought this would be a great blanket to knit up.

I then printed out a copy of the pattern, wrote down the yarn to look for in the store, then I went shopping. After finding the yarn I would need I came home and started knitting. I soon found that my knitting gauge was off a little bit because I knit tight and should have gone to a larger needle. However, I figured that since it was only off by 6 inches in the wideth it really wouldn't matter a whole lot. The yarn I was using "Red Heart White Acrylic" was stretchy.

I continued knitting on this blanket and on March 6th I had 24 1/4 inches in the length, before knitting the last 15 rows in the garter stitch. The total length came to 26 1/4 inches. So the blanket measured 23 x 26 1/4 inches. Yah, it was supposed to be 30 x 30 but with a baby blanket I don't think it really matters too much.

Next time I will check my guage a lot better though.