Long time lurker, first time poster!
Hi everyone! I've been wanting to join this community for a while and I finally got up the nerve to do so, after making a new journal just for knitting.
First, a couple of FO's to butter you up:
A story about the following blanket. The first thing I made that wasn't a garter stitch scarf was the Diagonal Baby Blanket
from LionBrand.com (free registration required). It was for my son - i picked bright red Homespun because I didn't know what I was having at the time. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it because the moment I went to take pictures he barfed on it. Stupid stomach bugs. Take my word for it - even though it's approaching 3 years of hard use, it's held up AMAZINGLY. Even though Homespun is a little weird to knit with, the blankets I've knit with it are so amazingly sturdy. It's almost all I use for baby blankets anymore.
The one seen here is a Fuschia one made for my husband's best friend's little girl. After I got done with it, I called him to get his mailing address and he said "If you made a blanket I'm going to kill you. We've gotten about three thousand of them and don't need another one." Well, fine, Mr. Ungrateful, then you can explain to your daughter why Auntie Kenzie never made her anything. Now I use it for when Holden's blankie is in the wash. The husband affectionately calls it "the clone." Holden doesn't know the difference.
That's not a very good picture of him - he wasn't feeling well. Poor thing...
This also-Homespun FO (as modeled by my gorgeous husband) is a v-shaped shawl. I can't find the pseudo-pattern online anymore, but I can tell you it's a short-row corner. Color is Tudor, garter stitch on size US 11 needles. What I learned from this pattern: DYE LOT IS IMPORTANT.
The last skein (of 5) was a different dye lot and now the one end is coral pink and navy blue instead of rose pink and turquoise. Oh well, it's mine, and I don't care. It's just as warm.
EZ's baby surprise jacket and matching booties from her Opinionated Knitter, knit in Vanna's Choice is Seaspray Mist (this is NOT color accurate, I couldn't get it to match to save my life) on size US 8 needles. I adore this pattern - I know I'll be making about a hundred more. I also added an applied i-cord edging, which took a little extra time, but looks great! Oh, and a note about Vanna's Choice: all three of my skeins had knots. I was bummed.
This scarf is my baby! Handspun from a lady in Duluth, $37.50 for just about 300 yards. Garter stitch on size 11 needles. To give you an idea how long this is, it goes to the tops of my feet and I'm five-foot-six. This picture is color-accruate. Also, it's part-merino, and it's the first animal fiber ANYTHING that I'm not allergic to! YAY!
Here's how much I love my husband - he asked for a warm, fashionable. striped hat, and I made him the Vogue Knitting Ribbed Hat
(seen on this page). I used Noro Kureyon (on US 7's, the pattern calls for 8's but I'm a loose knitter) but I'm not sure of the colorway - hubby bought it after I showed him what he could pick from. I'm glad he bought two balls - once I started knitting I discovered a pink stripe, so I just cut it off and attached the second ball. The stripe pattern ended up repeating itself, and it turned out pretty cute. He loves it.
And now, a yarn question:
I'm going to make socks. I've made house socks before on both DPN's and 2 circ's, and they were worsted weight. (All ended up being gifted.) Now I want to make real socks with real sock yarn, and I want to try 2 socks on 1 circ. I found Silver's Sock Class and Judy's Magic Cast-On, and I did some research on vegan yarns due to my allergy. I found two I like: Sockina Cotton and Whimzy Pinzy's Sheepless Sock Yarn. Anybody ever use any of these yarns? Anything I should know about them? My plan for the pattern is just a basic stockinette foot with ribbed calf, toe-up. Thanks in advance!