Review 1: New Pathways for Sock Knitters

Sock knitting is something that seems to come along in every knitters create.
Most of us believe that Sockyarn is not stash.
There for, we should want to use up all that non-stash from time to time.



In Cat Bordhi's book New Pathways for Sock Knitters we have a ton of ways to create with our sock yarn. What she tries to do in the book is create a way of thinking about the structure of the knit sock.

Now the ideas of this book are pretty good. The increases that she uses Linc/Rinc are a nice way to make stitches with out holes. The diagrams that show how to use two circs is pretty nice too. Though I don't think that's the method for me.


The designs are good, the charts for working socks for your own feet are understandable (which is more than some).

I did the Woven Ridge Socks socks. They turned out well. The get a bit droopy on my caff but otherwise they fit quite well.


The one thing that I'm critical of is the lay out of the book. Some of the instructions get a bit muddled. There are cut outs and instructions and sometimes it feels like a chose your own adventure book.

I did my homework.
I started at the very beginning of the book and knit the first baby bootee fallowing the pattern word for word. Well, mostly.



Starting from the beginning of the book is the best way to figure out the way that Miss Cat thinks about the socks. If you try jumping around in the patterns, well the chose your own adventure aspect of the book gets more pronounced.

All in all a good book to have in your arsenal.

Patterns doing good.

Ysolda Teague is a great knit designer.
This month she is donating 50% of her profits from pattern sales to DWB.
Click on the picture to fallow to her Whimsical Little Knits 2 page on Ravelry.

I have also been eyeing Sarah Barbour's Kimono Top for a while.
She is donating 100% of her profits to StC.

What better time to pick up some patterns that you have been looking at.
You will be doing good as well.

Now,
This weekend I'm going to sit down and write up a review of the book below.

I have knit a few of the patterns and I have read all the instructions.
I think it will be a good way to start off this new year direction of the blog.
I'm even going to start a new baby sock or 2 to prep for this.
That's right, I do my homework... sometimes.

New Year, new direction

There is a lot of snow on the ground. To much in fact. All the snow never makes me feel like it's a new year. Spring, that's when the year starts again for me.

But for the sake of blogging more, I will make a "New Year Resolution". I am going to start reviewing my knitting/crafting books. I need a reason to justify the compultion i have to buy craft books. If they are well designed, they just call out to me. I'm going to make it a monthly thing. Maybe the last Monday of the month.

Now it I really get cracking, I'm going to review tools and yarn and patterns as well. Though I'm just going to start with books. No over doing it right off the bat.


On another note, the marshmallows have defeeted me. I don't know if it's the fact that my mixer can't go as fast as it should. Or if i'm not leaving it to sit as long as I should. I've decided that if I need some, I'm just going to buy my hand made marshmallows from some folks that know what they are doing. I found this great maker to try.

Well that's all for now. Keep an eye out for the book review.

Sugar over load

So I finally made my own marshmallows. I've been wanting to do it since I saw Martha do it. Now, mine didn't come out perfect but they are pretty good. I used the recipe that Craft posted. I messed up a little bit though. I didn't pay attention when it said "put 1/2 cup water" because at the top it say that you will need "1 cup of water". Always pay attention when you are making something new. The turned out, but I think they are a little too moist. Also, having a clean kitchen with all the right tools would be good.

You will notice that you can not see my kitchen in the photograph. Yes... well let's just say that we are not being good about our chores around here right now. The only chore we seem to get right is giving the kitties all the attention in the world.

Well, hopefully the sugar buzz will end here soon and I'll get some sleep.

Holidays?

We would like to know where Santie Paws is at? Is he going to leave treats and catnip? Perhaps a new kitty bed? We have been "good" this year, well some of the time.

The kitties seem to think that if they sit by the tree, something will happen. Each evening as I surf the web Miss Siren sits under it and watches me. I keep having dreams about tall perches for cats. Humm I wonder why?

I hope everyone has a good holiday season. I won't be writing much (shocker!) because well i'm working a lot and there really isn't much to say about that.

Food!!!

Insert 19 century orphans singing "Food, Glorious Food" here.


I do love a good breakfast. And now that Pop NE is doing brunch on Sundays, well I'm a happy camper.
What we have here is the egg sandwich on rye with potatoes. It was pretty tasty. Though i would have liked the eggs scrambled rather than sunny side up.

This is the Banana's Fosters french toast (i think) with pecans on top. It was very sweet and tasty. Almost too much to eat. So it was lunch too.

Now going out for food is great. Honestly if I could have someone else cook for me all the time, well I would. But it is nice to try your hand at a new thing some times too.

This something new is Spicy Butternut Squash Soup. It turned out pretty well. I think I might try to grow some butternut squash next year in the garden. There was only one thing not quiet right with the soup. I put too much cycane pepper in it. I think maybe with a little more cream or even sour cream it will be good for lunch next week.
I have also started the Thanksgiving desert cooking. The oven will be taken over by a bird tomorrow. So that makes now really the only other time to do any of the things that need to be put in the oven. These are Pumpkin cookies. It was a good simple recipe. Pretty much shorting, brown sugar and pumpkin. These were made out of the pumpkins that i grew. It really something special to cook with something that you have grown.

There is a down side to all this cooking though. This down side is the reason that i would gladly never cook.

What is it? It is the dishes that making food creates. Just after you get the kitchen clean, you turn around and there are all these dirty dishes to deal with. :(
Well on this Thanksgiving I'm thankful for many things, friends, family, good employees, and a dish washer to do all these dishes in.

kitties and computers

Lately, somebody has been stealing my computer. I'm not going to say who (Siren)
She keeps crawling on my lap and onto my computer every night lately. I wonder if it's because the computer is warm? It is really cute though.

I've been working more on my log cabin blanket. I'm down to one skein each of the colors. I'm pretty sure that there will be enough of the center color to edge the whole thing. It might even be done for Thanksgiving. Something nice to cuttle in on my day off.