SOCKS!

I'll start by saying that I found myself sitting at two nights of cheer leading practice and one night of Boy Scouts this week...soooo...I had plenty of time to "yarn" while I waited.

My first pair of socks is finished. I chose a pattern called Toes Up Socks by South Bay Crochet. The pattern was very easy to follow. The heel decrease/increase was very easy. Overall, these were very easy socks to make. Here they are, don't they look very easy?
The only pattern deviation I made was that I added a front post/back post double crochet cuff.

As I previously mentioned, I used Juniper Moon Farm Sock yarn in the colorway named Daisy Fay & The Miracle Man made of 80% Super Wash Wool and 20% Nylon. I had 420 yards of sock yarn and have a good bit left over. I'm hoping I have enough yarn left over to make Jalen a pair of ankle socks.

Now that I have my first pair of socks under my belt, I will be searching for a pattern with a little more difficulty. I'm all about the socks right now! So much so, that I bought a set of sock blockers and some more sock yarn online. Oh, and a pattern book with a pretty sock pattern in it.

Other than working on the socks, I have been busy adding some of my finished projects to my Ravelry profile this week. This takes a little bit of work. Finding the correct pattern name, finding a corresponding picture, remembering what size hook I used, remembering what yarn I used, figuring out what size I made, etc.

So, what am I going to work on next? Well, I really should force myself to finish my kids' afghans. Not that they need them NOW, but in a few months they will and I will be nagged to death by Miss Jalen if hers isn't finished by the time she needs an extra blanket on her bed.

Giovanna's Cardi (X2)

In my last post I mentioned that I was working on a project called Giovanna's Cardi. This cute sweater was so quick and easy to make that I got carried away and made myself one too! The problem is...the pattern wasn't written to make a mom-sized sweater, so I had to figure it out. Here we are on a recent Sunday morning, dressed alike for church:I believe I unknowingly told a fib in my last post about the content of the yarn I was using. I reported that I was using 100% acrylic mill end yarn. When I went to the yarn closet to grab another skein I took a better look at the packaging and found that the yarn is actually 100% unknown fiber mill end yarn. It looks like acrylic and feels like acrylic, so I'm just going to pretend it's acrylic. OK? OK.

I took a trip to the beach over the 4th of July holiday and got a little reading done. I have the entire collection of Betty Hechtman's crochet murder mystery series and finally had time to read the first book called "Hooked On Murder". It's a quick read revolving around the main character, Molly Pink...an event coordinator at a local book store, who stumbles upon the corpse of the leader of the crochet group that meets weekly at Molly's book store. All signs point to Molly as the killer, so it's up to Molly to figure out who the real murderer is. As the story unfolds, Molly learns how to crochet. Each book has a pattern and a recipe mentioned in the story with instructions printed at the end of the book. Hooked On Murder's pattern is CeeCee's Granny Square Washcloth made of cotton yarn.
Can you believe this is the first washcloth I've ever made? Why? Because my mom makes knitted dishcloths, so I've never had to make my own. :-) I WAS going to give this washcloth to my mom because she supplied the yarn so I could make this washcloth, but she complained that it was too small, so guess what? I'm keeping it!

On to the next project.....SOCKS! Socks is something else I've never made before and figure it's high time I give it a try. The yarn you see below is Super Wash 80% wool/20% nylon sock yarn from Juniper Moon Farm. I am a shareholder in Juniper Moon's Community Supported Agriculture program, and when sock yarn went on sale to help fund shade structures for the farm's sheep I couldn't help but pitch in and buy some yarn to help out. Besides, who can resist a sale on yarn? Not me!
I am still mulling over patterns I'd like to try. I'm leaning towards a toe-up pattern since you can try them on as you go to ensure a perfect fit. Wish me luck!