Hey, Neighbor

Hi Knitters,

We're back from a quick three day weekend getaway up north. I have some knitted surprises I whipped up while riding in the car and sitting by the lake. I'll share as soon as I get them written up.

Peachy's friend, and our neighbor, is quite the crafty artist. She is always making something or other. She crochets and knits and has many other crafty skills. I always enjoy seeing what she is up to. The other day she was over and she started asking me about what she would need to knit some socks. I hesitated for a minute and asked if she wanted some of my sock yarn and needles. Her face lit up and I knew the answer.

We went in my studio where I have more sock yarn than I'll ever knit. I picked up this wonderful self-striping Opal called, Feeling, Farbe #1701, Partie #2. I don't know what those numbers mean exactly but those are the numbers on the label if you are interested. One is the colorway number and the other is the dye lot.

I bought this skein when I was working on Itty-Bitty Toys for the sock yarn toy chapter. I love the colorway and now that I see it being worked up I love it even more. I might have to find another skein for myself. She worked and worked the night away. In fact, the girls were all sitting in a darkened room watching The Princess and the Frog. When I peeked in to make sure everyone was okay there she sat knitting in the dark on her sock. Pretty impressive. I was tickled.

The next day she came over and had about 4 or 5 inches completed on the cuff. She likes a long cuff so I don't know how long she'll go with it. The funny thing was that she showed me a Bunny hat she had knitted from Itty-Bitty Hats. It is adorable but I noticed that she was twisting her stitches somehow when I looked at her knitted fabric.

Do you see that? Since she learned how to crochet first she automatically held the yarn in her left hand. This is good because she taught herself how to knit continental style with no problem. Instead of having the yarn go under the needle and through the loop she was wrapping the yarn over the needle and then under the needle and then through the loop. This is like you would do with a crochet hook. I just helped her for a few seconds to correct her knit stitch and she took off! Her knitting is perfection now with a great and even gauge. It was fun to see.

I'm sure she'll be back soon with the finished cuff and wanting to learn how to do the heel. Her family was in Chicago this past weekend so I know she was in the car riding along. I'll keep you posted on her progress. She's a cute one.

She was also wearing this Starburst wrapper headband. She made a gum wrapper chain with Starburst wrappers and then glued them on a plastic headband with craft glue. I love it!!

I'll be back soon with some trip photos. In the meantime I just saw this gorgeous cardigan on Ravelry by Cecily Glowik MacDonald, it is called Candelia. Here is the link! I love this one so much. A cardigan made from sock yarn is the best.

best, susie