Finally Leyburns Are Done!

The Leyburn socks for the STR KAL were started shortly after the first of the year. Once again, hand pain limited my knitting. Picked these up last week with the heel flaps at the halfway mark. Thanks to dh driving on a trip to the VA for his hearing aid check and a stop to get my new military dependent's ID, I was able to knit most of the trip. When we returned home, I only have about 5 rows left on the toes. I did mod by tapering the pattern st to a "v" on the instep and knitting the remainder of the foot in stockinette.

Yarn: STR lightweight in Dixie Chicks colorway

Needles: Addis #1 circ for ml

Pattern: Leyburn socks

I joined the Operation Knitted Gator group earlier this month....received the specific yarn requested last week and began knitting. I'm already half finished with the first gator. The group was started by kerlina on Ravelry to send a gator (k2,p2 "turtleneck" scarf) to every soldier in her dh's unit that has been deployed to the middle east. She hopes to have 155 finished to send in October. Since dh is a retiree of the national guard, I decided that it was the least I could do.

Leyburn Sock Stitch Pattern for ML

The STR (Socks That Rawk) group on Ravelry is hosting a KAL with the Leyburn Socks. Well,.... it's a toe-up pattern. One construction that I haven't perfected to accomodate my very high instep. Someone had posted the pattern revision for top-down, but I knit both socks at the same time on magic loop. I tweaked that pattern a bit so it would work with magic loop. Here it is --
Leyburn Socks – stitch pattern for magic loop
Row 1: * wyif, sl 5, wyib, K1. Repeat from * around.
Row 2: Knit.
Row 3: K2, *lift loop with tip of left needle and k tog w/next st, K5. Repeat from * ending K3.
Row 4: K to last 3 sts, wyif, sl3.
Row 5: Continue wyif, sl2,* wyib K1, wyif, sl 5. Repeat from * ending K4.
Row 6: Knit to last st, lift loop and ktog with last st.
Row 7: *K5, lift loop and ktog with next st. Repeat from * ending K6.
Row 8: Knit.
I'm on my third repeat and I believe it is correct. Any problems or questions let me know. Will try to take a pic of the sock legs tomorrow. (edited - Here's the pic. The stitch pattern above is OK.)I had some "white-knuckle" driving today. This past week has been horrible here in northern Iowa. Monday was a blizzard - no school! Tuesday was a two-hour late start school day. Wednesday and Thursday were days off due to extreme cold temps -27F and -29F with wind-chills in the -40F. Friday, then, was another two-hour late start. I didn't see my first period class at all during the entire week! At the high school, we only have a 30 minute class with one of the three morning classes. On Tuesday, we began with 2nd period and Friday with 3rd --- first period had their time earlier when the weather was bad. I had cabin fever!!! I almost had my fill of knitting with so much time away from school. My AC adapter to charge my laptop died this week, so after trying to purchase one in town, I headed about 55 miles east. We still have about 8 inches of light, fluffy snow that blows around whenever the wind is up ....... today, again, the wind was blowing 20 to 35 mph. It was blowing low to the ground, so visibility wasn't too bad on the way over . After purchasing the adapter at Best Buy, I made a stop at a couple of stores, and then met my SIL and her DGD for lunch. Then ...., the drive home. I had noticed that wisps of snow were beginning to come out on the highway from the north on the way over, but they were a lot of them now. Most of the time, I could just move over the center line, but a couple of time I did have to break through the small drift. There were places, most right before and after the towns that the visibility wasn't too good and travel slowed to 25 mph. It took about 20 minutes more than usually, but I was home safe. I don't think that I am as brave at almost 60 years old as I was in my 20s to 40s. Just want to stay home and knit tonight.

Socks 2009

An "intention" for this year is to knit at least two pairs of socks each month. My two pairs for January are -

Mad Color Weave Socks by Christine Lorin in Skacel Trampoline in colorway 233 (red, orange, yellow, green, blue) on magic loop. These are commissioned from a silent auction at church in Nov. One of our pastors ordered a pair for himself and also one for his wife.....these will be for Hope. Pastor's will be started next in CTH supersock in the java colorway.... so appropriate for him since he loves a hardy, bold coffee.

The other pair is the Faceted Rib Socks from the Little Box of Socks in Ewephoria handpainted sock yarn (from the LYS about 40 miles from home) in a black, brown, grey and red-orange colorway. These will be my "Bulldog" socks to wear on the days of athletic competitions at AHS. The pair dd knitted three years ago are so faded that they look more rose and grey instead of black and red.

Also, I signed up for the STR Leyburn Socks KAL. The KAL members are trying to use as many different colorways of STR lightweight or mediumweight, so I chose Dixie Chick. I have yet to cast on the socks, however, school has been cancelled today because of the extreme cold. It started off at -3F and has been falling since. It is to "bottom out" at -30 to -40F before the cold spell ends on Friday. That doesn't include the wind chill which may approach-60F. I don't ever recall this frigid of temps in northern Iowa in my almost 60 years. Today may be the day to cast on since I usually have at least two different pairs on needles at the same time.

Happy knitting everyone ...... and stay warm! TLGB

Spring Forward Has Sprung

My socks for the STR forum Spring Forward KAL are done ..... finished .... waiting to be washed. They were knit with STR mediumweight Lemongrass on Addi circ #1.5 with ml. Started them July 12 and finished knitting them last night but waited to kitchener the toes this morning. Now,......what sock will be next. Who knows?
My February Lady Sweater in BMFA Twisted in the Ravel colorway Rook-y is started. I decided some mods were needed, so started with 1.5 inches of 1x1 rib with the suggested buttonhole. About 2 inches further, decided to frog to the buttonhole and do a double yo buttonhole instead....like it a lot better. Still haven't found the buttons, but may do that this week-end at PT in Omaha. I know that they have quite a supply of buttons.
Also have started a sweater for dd.......she purchased the yarn, but I'm knitting it. It will have the cable from the Arwen sweater in IK a while back. Because of her arm length, I needed to add about 5 inches to the pattern ... quite impossible with the sleeves knitted per pattern. So, I'm using the cable from Arwen with the pattern of the Central Park Hoodie ... will make the possibility of a good-looking sleeve a lot better. Just have about 2 inches done on the first front.
I've sent off all of my swap packages, but am still waiting to hear from my upstream on the Caffeine Addicts swap. Haven't heard a word .... all packages were to be sent by today. Maybe I've been forgotten. ¿Quién sabe? Who knows?
Suppose I'd better get back to my FLS and get the amt of yarn that I just frogged knitted ...again!
Happy knitting! TLGB

Socks That Rawk KAL

I realized last week that I didn't have any socks on the needles after I finished two pairs that were WIPs. Decided that I'd do the Spring Ahead Socks KAL that the Socks That Rawk group is doing this month. I chose lemongrass for the colorway, but it is mediumweight. I do knit quite tightly, so I'm using Addi 1.5 ml. I've only knitted about three hours total, but have already completed 1.5 pattern repeats (24 total rows per repeat) on both socks .... that leaves just 24 more rows until I'm at the heels. The repeat is an easy one to memorize, so don't have to refer to the pattern/chart.

I'm also working on the scarf for annadownya for the Ravelry Scarf Exchange. I've never done two halves and then a 3-needles bindoff, so that something new for this old knitter. The pattern and yarn is secret until it is received by the downstream pal, so a pic should be posted before the end of the month .... Aug. 1 is the date the exchange ends. I have all the goodies for the box, just need to finish the scarf ..... I'm about 1/4 done with the second half. I love this pattern with the yarn .... it's only the fifth one that I tried. TLGB