Lots of Fun!

Pattern: Victorian Lace from the Six Sox Knitalong
Yarn: Lang Jawoll in Pink
Yardage: 55 grams - I started with two skeins (each 45 g) and have about 35 g left.
Yarn Source: Stash
Needles: Size US 1 (2.5 mm) Knit Picks circulars
Estimated Time to Complete Project: 1 month
Modifications: Went toe-up instead of cuff-down, used Figure -8 cast-on then increased, followed Wendy's pattern for the slip-stitch heel flap as a guideline for gusset and heel flap.

The best thing I liked about this pattern was the Mini-melon stitch. It was adapted from Victorian Lace Today and is a really fun stitch.

I was able to get a lot of the leg done on Sunday when I went to the San Diego Stitch 'N Pitch and finished them up yesterday.


From left to right: Cupcake, Me, and My Best B. Sunday was a fun day. I love being with my friends and knitting. It was a nice day to be at a baseball game although the Padres got their bats and balls handed to them. The score was 9-0. Ouch.

Monday was also a good day because my lovely Victoria arrived.

I've been practicing everyday, trying to get more consistency and getting to know the wheel a little better. I know I'm not very good at it, but I sure am having fun trying. I feel very peaceful sitting there spinning and I know it will feel even better when I start improving.

Next, I'm going to finish up the Twisted Flower. I've only got about 2 inches to go before grafting the toes so I'm very close to being finished. After that, I'm going to make the Zombie Wristwarmers from Magknits for my #1 son, and probably some for me too!

Victorian Lace and Victoria

I think I might actually get these done in time to submit them to the Six Sox before the end of the month. This is my second pair with this group, the first being the Horcrux socks. These socks were written with a top-down pattern but I knew I was going to be cutting it close to the deadline so I decided to go with toe-up. It's just easier for me that way and I like to try them on as I go. I usually use a short-row heel with my toe-up socks but I found this pattern on Wendy's blog that uses a gusset and slip-stitch heel flap. She also has one with a gusset and plain heel flap. She said, "For a short row heel, I knit until the foot is 7.25 inches long. For my plain gusset heel sock, I knit until 7 inches long. For my slip-stitch gusset heel sock, until 6.75 inches long. So it’s one-quarter of an inch difference in each of them for me." I decided to use the slip-stitch heel flap so it would more closely match the original pattern. I had to change the numbers up a little bit so I kind of took a leap of faith that I could change it without messing it up. It worked! Thanks Wendy!

Speaking of leaps of faith, I've been thinking about spinning for a couple of weeks now. I decided to learn how and this last Thursday took a spinning lesson. I got a little drop spindle and a bag of top.I started practicing with it and decided that it is something I definitely want to do. I would love to be able to spin yarn for whatever I want and be able to make any kind I want. So I decided to get a spinning wheel. I've been kind of eyeballing them ever since I decided to learn to spin. I wanted to know what I was getting myself into. This is the one that caught my eye:It's from Louet and she's called Victoria. It's a portable wheel that weighs in at around 6 lbs. It folds up flat and comes with almost everything I'm going to need to get started. I thought about all the reasons I should and shouldn't get this wheel but nothing could sway me away from getting it.

And this beautiful skein of hand-dyed yarn was at the yarn store down the street from my spinning lesson and is destined to become my Pomatomus socks.
That's it, what a day!