A strange let-down -

I finished the blackberry kneesock and now have the strangest feeling. All thirty of the first batch of socks are done and I feel like there is a black hole trying to pull me into it. I haven't heard back from my editor with answers to my questions, including where to send this last batch - home or office. I have the last pattern to enter into the computer but don't know what to do next.

I could start the mates for the socks I know she loved and take a chance. I could start scanning charts but don't know if they want them in hard copy or online. I guess I could start writing introductions to the patterns. I could even knit whatever I want for a day or two but have no idea where to start with the zillion UFO's I have hiding in my closet. Or I could clean out the linen closet, reorganize my closet for summer or clean out the refrigerator - Who am I kidding?

Final sock - first batch

Hooray! I am into the foot of the 30th sock for "Knitting New Socks." I am wondering if I will get the first ones back from Melanie so I can be sure that the mates are the same size. If I wrote the patterns "perfectly", I should be able to duplicate them without the originals in hand.

I still have two and a half patterns to plug into the computer but, hopefully, that won't be too tricky to accomplish. Gee - I reached the target number of thirty socks and still have yarn and designs for four more. What do I do with them? Maybe the yarn companies will want the yarn returned.

I'm wondering if the charts will have to be sent as hard copies or electronically. Computers have certainly made designing and writing books much simpler than it would have been twenty years ago.

Getting Close -

OK - The Harmony sock done in the mulberry Lisa Souza hardtwist petite yarn is done. I just have to get the pattern into the computer and to my tester. I have two more items for the book getting fairly close to being done. One is a sport weight blackberry colored knee sock and the other is a worsted denim colored legwarmer.

The next step is to send the ten "socks" to the editor and wait to hear from her to see which ones will end up in the book and need mates knitted to go with them. Maybe I will sneak a day off (or two)and knit something I want to do rather than something "socky" for the book for a change. Then it will be back to work to knit thirty socks which I want to send in by the end of July.

Everything has to be done by August 1 and turned in. I will have to do some re-formatting of patterns but at least they are all written (and tested at that point).
Hopefully, everything will go smoothly enough to squeeze in a daily swim come warm weather. It's a good thing I am a fast knitter, huh?

I will have to write the introductions to each of the patterns. They have Japanese names and use Japanese stitches (except for the Origami sock that uses the Creative Knitting technique). Technically, the Harmony sock I just finished should be called Chouwa which is a Japanese word for harmony.

Well, back to the knitting.

Almost There!

Almost There!

My(hopefully)last batch of ten socks should be ready to send to my editor by mid-week. The last three are on the needles and I should be able to finish them and get them in the mail by the end of the month.

Once I know which ones Melanie wants for the book, I will have to start knitting their mates. I also have to copy all of the charts so that the graphic artist can re-do them in our "normal" style rather than using the Japanese symbols. Some of them are the same, but many are different.

I am paying someone to test the patterns and edit them as I go and when I work from them for the second sock, I should catch any errors that got through. Hopefully, this won't be a book full of errors to mess up the knitters who buy the book.

Artsy fartsy sock

Halfway there!

I am officially half done with the last batch of ten socks to be sent to my editor.
I finished the Origami sock last evening, using the Valentina Devine method of "Creative Knitting" that I learned from her at a Stitches event years ago. Since my book is called "Knitting New Socks", I figured that this would truly be "new" to sock knitters. I actually did a pair of socks this way once, years ago, for Lion Yarns who wanted some truly different socks for a big fashion show. My husband referred to them as the "Artsy Fartsy" socks at the time. I'll have to see if I have a picture of them hiding in my computer for you to see. I can't show you the new socks as they, technically, belong to my publisher.

I am hoping to have a batch of ten socks ready to mail by next Wednesday - Thursday at the latest. I have number seven to the point where I have two inches plus one toe to go. These is the Bonsai sock and is a beautiful, leafy design lace in loden green Cherry Tree Hill Yarn. Number eight is the gold boot sock and I think I will concentrate on it next. Number nine is the denim legwarmer and number ten is the blackberry knee sock. So what am I supposed to do with the two other socks I have on needles? I got carried away and have more going than necessary! If I can finish them, I'll send twelve socks instead of the ten required. I'll bet that will be a first!

I had good intentions -

I thought I was going to finish those leafy green socks yesterday but never touched them.

I did say that I would work on the Merino 5 Over the Knee sock and I did. I got it out and worked on it yesterday morning while I sat in the sunroom, enjoying the view of the mountains and blossoms and all of the birds. We even had a chipmunk on our deck rail, eating some loose corn.

When it was time to go to the shop, I tossed it in my shop bag and took it with me and when I left, I was not only done with all of the patterned part, but had turned the heel and picked up the gusset stitches. Well, now I was way too close to put it down so had to keep going. I finished the foot during the evening and what did I do - work on the green sock? No - I wound a skein of denim blue Lorna's Laces worsted yarn that I just had to try a new pattern on for a legwarmer. Yes, I like it! And it's not too hard either. My editor keeps cautioning me that there have to be some fairly simple things in the book.

While I was waiting for my computer to boot, I just had to play with some Baby Cashmerino and you know what that means . . .

Back to Work

Yes, I really behaved well yesterday. I finished the cute, ruffled sock made of Schaefer Anne yarn in the Greenjeans color. I hope it passes the "editor" test. Now I need to get the pattern into the computer and send it to my pattern tester.

When I was finished with that sock, I picked up my loden green Cherry Tree Hill sock that was past the gusset stage and worked on that the rest of the day.

I guess this is the time for a confession though. Before I did either of those socks, I cast on the gray Regia Silk, did the cuff and got into it enough to see that the pattern works with it. OK - I'm not perfect!

Today I will be going to Loopville, the LYS I sit at a couple of afternoons a week, knitting and helping folks that got seriously stuck in their projects. I probably should take that green sock and maybe I can finish it. I haven't touched the over-the-knee sock in days and I think maybe that will be my project of choice today while I am home.

I need ten more socks for the last batch to be sent to my editor and I have fifteen on the list. This is going to be interesting.

An almost "lost" day -

I've been fighting a cold bug and when I got up yesterday, I thought it had really broken through my wall of echinacea. I thought maybe it would be a good day to just finish up fairly mindless parts of socks and I did work on a plain foot for a little bit -

But then I couldn't resist picking up that blackberry colored knee sock I had sitting next to my chair. OK - I had tried several patterns the day before that didn't work but today would be different.

Sure - about four or five different tries later, I sat down at my computer and printed off a pattern I had written for one of my original samples for the book. Then we had dinner and I started trying this pattern and it worked! Before bed, I got through a whole 28 round repeat! I felt like I had won the Oscar or a Grammy.

Do you suppose that maybe I can stick to some of my "established" patterns and finish up some things today or will the gray Regia silk have to jump on needles to test that pattern I spotted for it yesterday? And then there's that really cute pattern I saw that would look great in the butterscotch colored Panda silk.

I wrote down the projects I am working on or have planned and it turns out that there are fifteen of them and the book only needs ten more. Do you suppose they could use more than thirty patterns for it?

A mixed up day

It was a day of mixed blessings. The biggest thing that happened is that I got my first royalty advance check and promptly deposited it in my account. I guess this is all real, huh?

I took my boot sock to the shop to work on and people kept stopping to admire it. The owner said her first thought when she saw it was "I could do that." My editor keeps cautioning me to not get carried away with complex lace designs as there are alot of people who wouldn't buy the book because they didn't feel they could knit them. What do you think?

Then, when I got home, I found two skeins of Lorna's Laces worsted weight yarn in a denim color for me to use for legwarmers. Also in the mail box was a package from Crystal Palace with their yummy Panda Silk in a butterscotch color. It's wonderful to have yarn companies just sending me whatever I ask for to design with! My office has baskets of yarn overflowing at this point.

The rest of the day went downhill, at least as far as designing went. I really wanted to use a pattern I had tried out with fingering weight, only I wanted to adapt it to a sport weight knee sock. My math brain was apparently on vacation and I struggled with trying to figure it out for a couple of hours. I finally thought I "had it" and cast on and did the ribbing. Then I promptly messed up the first rows of the pattern and had to rip it out. Maybe it just doesn't want to be this pattern. Maybe the knitting gods are trying to tell me something.

Three tries and I win!

OK - My editor wants me to include a "boot" sock in the book. Apparently, a boot sock is like a legwarmer with stirrups and a cuff that folds over your boot. Ok - I got it.

Now the tricky part begins. I figured out how to do a very cool looking cuff since that's the only part that will show when it is worn but it has to fold over a boot and then the wrong side becomes the right side for the rest of it!

I know how to do a purl row to make a turn row on a hem so tried that. Nope - didn't work.
Ripped it out.

Then I did it with rows of ribbing following the cuff but it didn't fold properly. Remember, it has to go over a boot.

Since the cuff had quite a bit of purl in it, I tried knitting two rows for the fold line. Yes! It folds.

Now I did some ribbing to make sure the sock would stay up reasonably well. Now came the tricky part - changing the wrong side to the right side. I ended up just turning my work and working backwards and joining the round at the end.

Now that I am past that part, I am just crusing along.

I can't believe I did that!

I am in the middle of knitting socks for a new book - my first ever at the age of 71! I have already sent two batches of ten samples to my editor and am working on the third batch.

Last night I thought I was ready to start the foot of a sock when I realize that I had inadvertently knitted four extra rounds about thirty rounds back! Yes I had to rip it out and tonight I will have to re-knit it.

I am talking to my editor tomorrow to get feedback about the last batch of socks I sent her. She liked nine out of ten in the first batch. My contract says I have to provide "25 to 30" projects so I am hoping that she likes them.

Originally, I was naive enough to think I would only have to knit a single sock for the book but apparently they will be on models' feet and I guess they have two of them. Once I know which ones pass the editor-test, I will have to knit mates for all of them.