Fish Lips Kiss Heel by Sox Therapist!!!

Yay!!!!

My first pair of Fish Lips Kiss heel socks are done!!!!

To say that I have been on a heel obsession lately is an understatement!

Ever since two years ago when I had the crazy idea to make Christmas socks for EVERYONE, I have been wanting to find my Holy Grail of heels!

I've done the slip 1, knit 1 heel and then I tried the Afterthought heel (which I didn't dislike, but I didn't LOVE) and now this heel!

So far, I'm loving it!

I know there are a billion and one heels out there and I'd like to try them all!

Cat Bordhi's Sweet Tomato heel, the OMG heel (as in OMG, please make it stop!)

:)

I have really come to love making socks and I want my own Vanilla perfect pattern 

that I can do on auto-pilot!

So far, I think this is it!

Will do more heels and report back!

:)

See that ladder down the front (on the above pic)?  It really bums me out!  I worked these on 4 dpns and I think I need to put all front (top of foot) stitches on one needle...

Also note in above picture... those toes are different!  I can't decide which I like better... a shorter toe or a longer toe (smaller bind off or longer bind off).  Something new to obsess about!

:)

No holes in that little corner!

Pattern: My own Vanilla socks 

Needles: DPNS US size 0

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd in Doheny colorway!

:)

Sporty Stripe Cardi by Meaghan Schmaltz

Pattern: Sporty Stripe Cardi by Meaghan Schmaltz

Yarn: Ewe Ewe Yarns Ewe So Sporty in Vanilla, Charcoal and Aquamarine

Needles: US Size 3

Modifications: None

Yay!  My very own Sporty Stripe Card is done!!!  And I love it!

I bought this yarn at Unwind in Burbank on the first day of the 2014 LA Yarn Crawl and I couldn't wait to power through this one!

It fits sooooo well and this pattern was sooooo easy!

I'd never made anything "Top-Down" before so I was excited to try it and I love it!

I love that you can try it on as you go so you can adjust to your body!

It's quite customizable in that way.

I also love that -  the way this pattern is written, everything is done all at the same time... so we you bind off, you are quite literally done!

No seams to sew.  Just ends to weave in!

AND! I love a pattern that is clear and concise!  All the text fits on one page! I love a good pattern!

(Did I mention I love this pattern!)

:)

My bottom edge ended up being quite curly so I might pick up along the bottom and add some kind of row that will uncurl that bottom a bit.  But I like that the sleeve edges are curly!  I think it's cute.

Here's the original at Unwind in Burbank during the 2014 LA Yarn Crawl.  It was love at first sight!

These sleeves were soooo easy and I just kept trying it on until I liked the length!

#@$&%(!_)*!&#$!!!!!!!!  Almost to the end of that sleeve and my needle broke!!!  

I'm really happy with this sweater and I will wear it with everything!!!!

You know I love my stripes!

:)

Diadem Shawl by Ruth Greenwald

Pattern: Diadem by Ruth Greenwald

Yarn: ColorShift Color Bridge in Turquoise to Bright Yellow

Needles US Size 4

Yay!!!  My Diadem is done!  This was part of a workshop at my LYS and I loved it for the COLOR!!!

This yarn is just beautiful and I wish you could see how everyone's turned out!

(My MIL's is down below!)

There were about 5 of us in the class and we really had fun with all this color!

Did I tell you how much I love the color orange?

It is just about my favorite color!  (A blue-orange, to be exact!  Like a Rothko orange!)

So I chose this yarn colorway based on that one color!

This yarn is really nice to work with and I like that it has a bit of stretch to it! 

As a group, we all agreed that we did not want any leftover yarn so we worked the charts until each color was done!

As a result, our Diadems are longer than the original pattern, and I like that!

(I like a longer shawl)

I finished this project at my Knitting Retreat and here are some pre-blocked pictures!

I love the scent of this Soak Celebration!  It's a very clean scent!

Here are two pictures of my MIL's... She also finished hers at the knitting retreat!

I love the way her's turned out and I think it looks like Fall!  

(or Fall leaves... or something that reminds me of Fall!)

:)

Pre-blocked!

Spectra by Stephen West

Pattern: Spectra by Stephen West

Yarn: Cascade Heritage (in Black) and Dragonfly Fibers Pixie (in Black Pearl)

Needles: US size 4

YAY!  And this is done!

This one is for my niece for her birthday as she requested a 'black scarf' and 

I thought this would be a nice present!

I have to tell you... I LOVE Stephen West's patterns.  I find them sooooooo visually interesting!

I like that they are graphic and geometric!

This pattern was a lot of fun and once you get the basic idea of the pattern down, you can pretty much be on auto-pilot and work this one fast!

 The pattern calls for 86 of these little ladders and I put stitch markers every 20 ladders 

so I could remember and count easily!

It's always important to me to have clean insides (wrong sides) as well as right sides!  

I love a clean wrong side!  :)

The short row wrap & turns create this nice circular shaping!

(when doing your wrap & turns, don't forget to pick up the wraps and 

knit 'em with the rest of the stitches!!!)

This was such a fun project and I'd love to make another one with my left over stash!

I love to see all the different variations on Ravelry, especially the rainbow-ish ones!

:)

Afterthought Heel!

Pattern: Afterthought Heel

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd in Doheny

Needles: DPNS US size 0

Gah!!!

I am in the midst of a full-blown heel obsession!!!

I have mastered and memorized the basic slip 1/knit 1 heel 

(I'm not sure what that heel is called... that's what I call it). 

And I don't dislike it... but I don't love it.  Primarily because I like the idea and the look of a different colored heel... and I don't think THAT kind of heel lends itself well to a different colored heel!

Enter the Afterthought heel!

I LOVE all the ones I've seen on Ravelry with a different colored heel, cuff and toe!  I just think it's a nice kick of color!

BTW... did I tell you how much I love my Slipped Stitch Studios "Needle Nook"  DPN needle protector???  Like LOVE love it!!!!

I think this heel is very easy and I like the process of taking out the waste yarn!  

(I think it's the fun part of this heel process!)

I followed the YouTube video and picked up stitches as she said, 

but I still had a little hole there in those corners!

I think I need to keep working on it to perfect it.

I also feel like the heel didn't fit as snug as I'd like.

Maybe I need to make it smaller?  I dunno. 

Will keep working on it and report back.

When did I become so obsessive?!?!

:)

What's your go-to heel?

:)

Sea Glass Shawl by Mira Cole

And this one is done!

Pattern: Sea Glass Shawl by Mira Cole

Yarn: Baah! La Jolla in Obsidian (gray), Pink Tourmaline, Blue Iris and California Poppy

Needles: US Size 6 (40" circular)

This one's been done for awhile now and I'm just getting caught up on posting! 

Can I just tell you how much I LOVE color!  Like "LOVE" love...

This Baah! yarn is sooooooooooo vibrant and colorful, words (and these pictures) do not do it justice!

That pink below is a hot fuschia loud pink... and I LOVE it!

:)

I'm not sure how she dyes this yarn but it is soooooo saturated (as loud color should be!).

This is the La Jolla and it's sooooo soft and cozy.  It's really nice in the hands and on the needles.

And in all this yardage, I did not come across any snafus or bumpies (things that always bum me out in yarn)...

This pattern is easy to work and if you can knit, purl & do yarnovers, then you can make this shawl!

I've been wearing it a lot lately and I get sooooo many compliments on it!  I like to pair it with something simple so the color really stands out!  :)

It grew quite a bit when I blocked it and at first I did not like that... but I do like it now.  It's long and drapey... nice and cozy.

What colors would you use?

:)