Making no progress

My company sent me to Edmonton for what was supposed to be a 3 day trip to help move that division to a new site. The trip turned into a week and now I'm going back for another week leaving next weekend. I took along a ball of sock yarn and needles but never got a chance to even get started. I'm still plugging away on a pair of Kroy socks for my daughter's boyfriend that are so boring! If I could knit on the plane I would be sooooo happy. I may try taking my knitting along this time because my husband will be taking me to the airport and I can pass it back to him if they refuse me.

Step 05 done

I finished the first sock in Austermann Step colorway 05. This yarn doesn't knit up anything like what it looks like in the skein! It's so hard to tell by looking at it in the skein just which colors are going to be the larger stripes. I really expected this one to be more of the browns and russet colors.

Finished Lava Rocks

I have one more pair of my Xmas socks done now. The Lava Rock Step socks are finished! I'm working afternoons this week so I've had time in the morning to get some sock knitting done. I think I like the colorways of the earlier numbers better than the newer ones. The new ones only have a 3 color stripe repeat and it isn't nearly as interesting. My favourites so far are still the original ones called Melba.

4 more Steps done

I have 4 more socks done with Austermann Step. They are left to right: 14, 11,03 & 15. I have the pair finished in the 15 so I have one Christmas present finished now! I'm way ahead of what I had anticipated so far. It's nice to have some breathing room! The 14 doesn't show the colors well in the picture. It's actually pretty shades of jade, amethyst and beige.

2 Step socks done

I've managed to finish 2 single Step socks so far. It sounds strange but I seem to be making more progress by jumping between 5 or 6 or I've lost count how many socks I have on needles right now. When I get bored with one I just put it down and pick up a different sock. The repeats seem to be different on almost every colorway so it keeps it interesting. The only down side is that the repeats are really long so making matching socks means unwinding a lot of extra yarn to find the right spot to begin the second sock. It doesn't help that I just started in on the skein without giving a thought to how I would know where to start the second one. A smart knitter would have started at the beginning of a color change but that would be a smart knitter, not me!

Step 03

I scrounged around and found 3 more needles to cast on one more of my Austermann Step colors. This is #03 and is mostly mossy greens. Not sure who these will be for, probably me!

More Step

I just happened to be driving by the store that sells Austermann Step this morning and somehow I ended up in there buying 3 more balls of it. They have all of the colors now and I picked up 21, 05 & 03 as well as a couple balls of Kroy in Winter Eclipse that I hadn't seen there before. I'm out of empty needles right now so getting started on more socks is going to have to wait but I can't stand not being able to see what they're going to look like!

Last Austermann Step

This is the last Austermann Step colorway that I bought. It is number 11 and consists of peaches, browns and beige. I really like this one and may keep them for myself!

United Way Afghan

I finished the afghan that I said I would donate for a raffle for the United Way. It didn't have to be done until the end of October but I have 5 pairs of socks to do before Christmas so getting it finished and out of the way is a good feeling. I found the pattern in the back of a book of afghans put out by Vanna White. It's called Zipper Tape and went quite quickly. I may do this pattern again when I have time.

More Step yarns

I've knit a little bit of another 3 of my Austermann Step yarns just to see what the pattern repeat is. I don't see any logic between the different colors at all. Some have quite a few stripes before a repeat and some have only a few. The ones with the long repeat are really going to be interesting when it comes to trying to get a second sock to match!


This one is all denim blues and is number 02 on the label. The repeat on this one is really long, I made it all the way to the top of the heel flap before I got a repeat.
The color number on the ball band of this one is 15. The colors look very muted and stone like.
This is number 18 and I saw it somewhere listed as Lava Rock for the colorway.

Austermann Step #14

This is one repeat of the Austermann Step colorway #14. It's a plum color, forest green and creamy beige.

Austemann Step socks

This pair of socks is made with Austermann Step yarn #10 Melba. It has Aloe Vera and Jojoba Oil in the yarn which is supposed to last for at least 40 washes. I don't know about the benefits of that but it is a wonderful yarn to work with. It has a very smooth and silky feel and drapes beautifully. It's a thinner yarn so you need a smaller needle to get a good fabric but the socks are nice for wearing in regular shoes. I really enjoyed working with this yarn so I've made it my Christmas gift of choice this year. It's a bit more expensive than some yarns (I paid $15.29CAN for a 100gr ball) but it's worth it to have a nice yarn to work with when you are making multiple pairs of socks. It comes in lots of different colorways as well.

This is our newest granddaughter, Emma. She's 7 months old now and is a very happy baby. It won't be long until she's on the run and ready to go.

Long time gone

It's been a long and busy summer. We took our granddaughter, Nyla, to Sudbury on a camping trip. Now I know why old people don't have children! I finished my Raspberry Swirl socks finally and have worn them once. They feel alright in my work shoes but are a bit heavy. I finished another pair using Austerman Step and they are really nice. I'll have to get a picture of them. I like that yarn so much that I bought 4 more balls to do socks for Christmas for the usual recipients.

Raspberry Swirl

I finished one sock of my SOTM kit called Raspberry Swirl. I like the yarn even though it is a bit heavier than would be comfortable in normal shoes. I think it will work fine in my work shoes. The yarn is Lily Chin's Chelsea and is a combination of 30% merino wool, 35% cotton and 35% acrylic. It doesn't have lot of stretch so I'm hoping that they don't stretch out and get baggy. The pattern is easy to follow but I'm finding it hard on my hands. I'm not sure if it's all the K2tog, knit into the back of the K2tog's or if it's the heavier yarn or maybe a combination of both. Anyway, I work on them a bit each night and then switch back to my scrap socks.

It's kitten season again. I found 3 in the barn that are really cute but the mother is pure evil so if I want to look at them I have to sneak in when she isn't around!

Circles of Hope

I started making these little granny's daughters with my leftover yarn years ago. They never seemed to amount to much and I sort of forgot about them. I saw a woman on my local Freecycle list offering 600 of them and decided I would put them together. The directions can be found at Granny's Daughters Assembly which also has some other ideas for things to make with them. I think I'll donate this to my local nursing home as a lapghan.

I made this afghan for my co-worker Jeff's wedding. It's a Mile A Minute pattern and worked up quite quickly. I've done this afghan twice lately so it's time to retire that pattern for awhile!