52 weeks challenge - beginnings

Recently the passion for stranded knitting is growing. There are new mittens and finally an old dream on my wish list, socks based on motifs from Simply Socks. They would be my July project. I hope.

tour de france KAL progress

I'm doing the heels on both socks now - here is a photo of day 15:

52 Week Challenge - Brenda (Owlsrook)

July Progress Photo - Pattern name is "Catherine", Yarn is Knit Picks Kettle Dyed "Gold"
Just doing the pattern on the cuff on this pair.

Working on this pair and my Tour De France pair at alternately.

Brenda in Alberta

Further progress on Tour de France sock

Here is further progress on my sock. For the first time I incorporated the pattern on the heal flap.

Started Tour de France sock

I admit I have not visited this blog as often as I should, but when I did I was caught off gaurd by the fact that the Tour de France is underway. Which shows I am a bigger fan of socks than the actual tour itself. But I did learn a lot about the Tour de France from last year's contest. I wanted to participate again so here is my progress so far.

My scanner did not do justice to the actual color of the sock. It is green, even though it might look more yellowish. It is going to be alternating k3,p3 pattern with an alternating all k and all p row every three rows. I want to keep it simple because my time is limited on when I can work on the sock.

I'm on the heel flaps

Photo of the first heel flap & the beginning of the second:

Tour de France progress

Hi, here are me prograss socks for the tour. It was the closest to red, white and blue that I came up with. I am just winging it for a pattern. Hoping to get two pair out of it. We shall see. Took Nathan and Katie to Chuck E. Cheese's yesterday for his birthday and he was pooped at the end of it! Looks so cute had to show you. Forgot my knitting too, bummer. Knit like the wind ladies! Go Astana!

Jody

Bamboo socks started

I'm using Cascade Heritage yarn again for Lorraine Ehrlinger's Bamboo socks. I'm enjoying knitting this pattern and like the bamboo in this green yarn. Much prettier emerald green in person than shows in the photo. Thanks, Lorraine, for sharing it with all of us. :)

TDF progress

from yesterday - don't have today's progress photographed yet:

52 week July birthday socks

I finished Adrienne's Menehunes socks in time for the birthday party and Fred has already asked for another pair. I'm happy to knit them with this easy, but interesting pattern. Next pair will be in blue. I made an 8" cuff and 11" soles so needed 5 gms more than the 100 gm skein of Cascade Heritage sock yarn. It took 460 yds for this pair. I have lots of this red yarn so you'll see it again a few more times, but not for a while. :)

Cast on TDF

The cast on for my Tour de France socks. A little while ago I received a skein of Knit Picks Bare, handpainted with green tea in a swap. It is about time, after and still knitting for others mostly that I'd cast on a pair for myself. In a few I will log off and work on it, ha... watching the 3rd stage in the tour - a team time challenge.

Sock progress

These are for a son-in-law.
MC yarn is Red Heart Heart and Sole
CC is Patons Kroy Socks

52 Week Challange - Debbie (Grandma 07)

I have finally finished the 10 stitch blanket :) I used a total of 6 skeins of Mini Mochi in the Neptune colorway. The blanket is 36" across which should be just right to wrap my new Gandbaby in this fall. I started this project in May and finished it July 4th.

a link to Tour de france video

versus

this year you can watch a lot of short clips of the race online.

after stage 1's start in Monaco, our hero Lance was #10, and Fabian Cancellara -spain was #1

then in stage 2 the amazing Brit, from isle of Manx, Mark Cavendish won stage 2 as sprinter.

from short clips today, there was a fierce wind and the pelleton was split up. as a result, Lance
is up at #3 now.

tour de france kal starts june 27th!

the real tour de france begins on july 3rd. our tour de france kal begins this saturday, june 27th and will end on august 2nd.

the object of the kal is to knit a pair of adult size socks (with minimum 3" cuff length) using the colors of tour de france. (it does not have to be Crystal Palace yarn! but we will have a special prize for socks in CPY yarn if enough people play.)

• yellow
• green
• red and white
• white
• or the national colors of your declared country

a progress picture and a picture of the finished socks must be posted on the carefree kal blog by midnight (PDT) august 2nd in order to qualify for prizes. please label post "tour de france kal."

please leave a comment on this post if you want to play. remember to state the country you are rooting for (and it doesn't have to be your home country). edited to add that the country doesn't even have to have a rider in the race! (unfortunately, i still can't find a country with colors i like! sigh...)

on your mark! get set! RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!

edited to make this a tour de france SOCK kal (per laura's request).

ps. you cannot use the same project for tour de france and the 52 week kal. sorry.

More about the Tour de France

****This year's tour starts in Monaco - remember Princess Grace Kelly? so is supposed to be a big deal*****


Hi folks
i hosted a Tour de France KAL on a separate blog last year and we had a lot of fun- with prizes from Crystal Palace yarns.

background - my husband loves cycling and got me into watching it also. of course that was at the time when an American Hero, Lance Armstrong, was on a major winning streak - he beat testicular cancer to come back and win a 3 week!! bike tour over mountains 7 [seven!] times in a row.
lance is back after 2+ yrs off, and a broken collar bone, with his PlanetArmstrong on the web, and his Livestrong special site to help fight cancer. so regardless of win or lose, he's doing something to help folks

for 3 wks these guys will ride their bikes up and down hills and steep mountains. watching them makes you amazed.

colors:
Yellow for Race Winner [each stage winner gets it for a day and then final winner]

Green for Sprint Winner [fastest across the line - who may or may not have best total time]

Red and White for Mountain winner [they get points to be the first atop]

White for best young rider

and SPECIAL for you.... option to declare a country and knit a country-colored sock.... so R/W/B for us and R/G/Black for germany, etc

................ we will give away at least 1 prize, but how many prizes DEPENDS on how many join in! more prizes if you get more folks to KAL!!

by the way... Teams are NOT based on countries- they're international!!

1. there is NO team USA - columbia/highroad [great Brit rider Mark Cavendish] and garmin are usa based, with a lot of usa riders and many non-usa riders

2. our hero Lance Armstrong (USA) is riding for team Astana, which is from Kazakstan, [unless they fail to pay their bills again] so you have to get used to faves from your country on another team....

LOL, you might google some countries flags to find colors you like!

Tour de France Prizes

First, you can find out more about the Tour here TourDeFrance
or also google for PLANET ARMSTRONG and learn about teams and riders. Lance's channel has lots of little videos

here's a link FLAGSoftheWORLD so you can find a flag to match your yarn! LOL!
example - the flag for Antarctica is Blue & White

Bhutan is yellow, gold and white...


At present, with only 10 "riders" in our KAL, we will give ONE prize.

what i want to do is offer several prizes as we did last year! so get more folks to PLAY! and there are MORE prizes and more opportunities to win!!

we will have a "knit in Crystal Palace Yarns" special category too if a few more folks join - OK?

6/30: as of today; we have 22 "bikers"! so two prizes plus a special members vote for favorite cpy project!

52-week July

Hi, I am going to finish this scarf for the July amount (plus?) I reentered the progress because I do not remen=mber when I started it. It is the Palindrome scarf on ravelry. The yarn is a pretty green I like and the first scarf I have done since my addiction to socks. It is also reversable when wore which I love. I like them long so I am not sure how many skeins I will use. I am also casting on for the TdS today. Yeah, Jody

It never took me that long... (52 week challenge)

...to knit a pair of socks. This time Trekking XXL Tweed in black was used. It seems the colour black and I can't get along with each other, as I had to frog several times... plus the yarn in the center of the ball was entangled. I had to puzzle the knots out and that made me grumpy for sure. 350 meters were used for a 10" foot size.

progress

so far

Socks finished in July

I started these June 26, so they don't count for TdS. They're for my son's July 5 birthday. I finished them today and used 384 yards of yarn.

The pattern is my own. The main yarn is Patons Kroy Sock 4 ply. the contrast was added so that I wouldn't run out at the end. Size man's medium.

52-week for June

Hi, finally had time to post finished pictures for June. I used Happy Feet yarn and the Barcelona pattern (on the SockWarsIV ravelry site.) I wish the zig/zags would show up better in the pictures. I did one even tried one outside. The color is actually closer to the two inside pictures. Deep shades of red and burgundy. I loved the pattern, totally not boring. I am also entering it in our local fair. Do not think it will win but I thought it would be fun. So, with this any the cotton chenille dishcloth pair I have the required amount of yardage! I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July weekend!

Jody

tour de France on July 4th in Oz

This is the Thuja sock by Bobby Ziegler. I made the cuff ribbing 1 1/2" instead of 1" and the cuff is 8" instead of the 6" in the pattern. The sole is 11". This was a very fast and enjoyable sock to knit. I will definitely make more of these.

I made larger socks and used a lot less than the yarn requirements for much smaller socks. I weighed the finished socks and got 106 gms. This is Merino Magic 8 ply which is DK wt and 105 m in a 50 gm ball. I mention this in case someone thought they needed more yarn than they had in their stash. This pattern in a keeper and great for last minute gift socks. My hope is to find some DK wt merino wool with some nylon in it so they will last longer, but they knit up so quickly it is still worth making even in the 100% wool.

Cathy's 52 Week Challenge

I've started a new project for the 52 Week Challenge! This is the July SKA Mystery Sock.

Cast on: 7/1/09
Yarns: Panda Soy - natural ecru
Panda Soy - poppy red
Maizy - cactus



To all you CPY yarn experts out there, do you think I'm going to have trouble mixing Panda Soy and Maizy in a colorwork project? I seem to normally knit Maizy on smaller needles than Panda Soy or Panda Cotton, but I needed green and Maizy was the only green sock yarn I had on hand. My only other option (short of trying to buy some green Panda Soy somewhere and waiting for it to arrive) is to rip back and knit the leaves in Panda Superwash Joyful, but that seems more blue than green to me:


Or, I have some leftover Panda Cotton in Fall Herbs, but I'm not sure I have enough for what the pattern calls for.

The Maizy seemed to work ok with the Panda Soy so far, but if anyone thinks this is going to end up being a bad idea, please advise! Thanks!

I may just stick with the Maizy and see how it goes! It's always fun to try new things in knitting!

Tour de France KAL Grandma07

I have cast on :) The pattern is Cookie A.'s Eunice and the yarn is Tempted Glam Grrl in Secret Garden. It is actually greener than this in real life. I will say that this pattern is really making me think! It is not a sock that can be knit while watching TV or chatting...luckily the yarn holds up quite well to tinking :P

Anything Goes

I finally have some finished socks out of Maizy. But not quite enough yardage for 52 week challenge.
It took three tries and over a year before I settled on a pattern.

color: turf (real color is greener than pics)
62g = 253 yds, cuff about 6 1/2" high when worn.
2.75mm dpns
Toe up, made up pattern. Inspiration from stitch pattern in "Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch.

tour de france KAL

I got started right on time & have been doing a little bit each day - I really may get them done.

a photo of the start,

& what I am using: Apple Laine Apple Pie yarn, colorway Sunny Days; 50% wool, 20% mohair, 20% silk, 10% nylon (from http://www.northernsunshinedesigns.com/); the pattern is "Sweet Peas socks" by Melissa Morgan-Oakers.

I plan to post more photos (maybe not daily, but timely) as I progress.

welcome!

we have several new members who are joining us for the tour de france kal! please welcome akbeth, bee, roberta, and sara. if i've missed someone, please let me know!

52 Week Challenge

2nd attempt, as the first one was "errored" out, dunno why. Felted slipper socks, my own pattern, which I will need to adjust if I try them again. I think they must have used 325 yds, I hope so!

Tour de France Kal - Brenda (Owlsrook)

Here is my Tour de France Entry - in progress photo. I decided to do the Red & White - Mountain Winner Colours as Red & White is also the Canadian Flag colours. I have no pattern for these, just making it up as I knit, so the final version will be a surprise even to me.

Brenda-(Owlsrook)

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

First of all I have a wonderful honery fur-baby named Norman. Norman sleeps in the bed with dh and me. Night before last Norman kept getting out of bed and getting into something and we didn't know what. Unfortunately we were too lazy to get up and turn the light to see what he was getting into. He had gotten into my knitting bag and taken the dbl pt needles out of my KAL sock and unraveled a good portion of, getting his favorite toy tangled in the yarn.

I started over againg yesturday.

I was about to start the gussett just now and found a dropped stitch way back in the toe of the sock. Yup, gotta frog and start over again!

Why do I keep getting knocked off my "bike"?

Jan Miraglio

Tour de France starts

Here is a start for "Bergtrikot 09" -best climber. Trekking Tweed in undyed and red. There will be a surprise in the cuff if I manage to do what I plan, LOL.

A second start is "Sunflower" for overall lead - yellow jersey. This is the yellow dyed yarn from the last post. My husband wants to get the socks. I wonder if he actually wants to wear yellow socks?

For a national flag I will be proud to go with ours. It´s black, red and gold, so at least must not be fluorescent yellow, but perhaps dark old golden shimmer. One has to accept a challenge, or?

help with colors for TdF

Kala Patterson found this link!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_colors_of_national_flags

1st tour de France started

I am having trouble getting the food dyes to make red and blue that won't run, so looked for a pattern that would use Merino Magic and found Thuja by Bobby Ziegler on ravelry. I started this yesterday. The hope is that I will make another pair in nicer colors and Patonyle sock yarn. Oh how I miss access to yarn stores!

anything goes

co-worker is having a baby next month so i made these little booties for the baby.

blue steps

magic slippers

i modified the sole by knitting it as for blue steps as i didn't want to knit it back and forth and then have to pick up stitches. this worked ok but would probably be cuter if i had actually followed the pattern.

also finished hubby's big boy booties. here are all three pairs together for comparison of size.

My last anything goes-post

 
This pair was started on Friday and finished yesterday evening... my last entry in the Anything Goes Kal...

Another pair in Trekking Tweed... the second pair in an order of six. I love how this yarn works up. LOL! And I have to be honest... I did not have something better to do this weekend than knit. Sometimes it is so relaxing :-)

Now I have to dig out my yarns for the Tour de France Kal...:-)

52 week KAL progress

Here's a progress photo of my current progress. I think these are going to end up being my July entries for the 52 week KAL, as I don't think I'll finish them before Wednesday!

Anything Goes

My Storm Cloud Shawl was knit with hand spun and dyed wool given to me by a good friend. Completed on June 25.

Jane's June 52 Week Challenge Finished

Wavy is completed! It does still need to be blocked, but I made the deadline for June!

2 skeins of Galway wool @ 220 each.