My boyfriend has big feet!

I wonder how many people are going to end up here looking for porn thanks to that post title, LOL! I'm referring (of course) to the fact that I have been knitting him a huge pair of socks. And let me tell you, these things really are huge. I've been using Queen Kahuna's Crazy Heels & Toes and I have to tell ya I love this book! I thought it was a little pricey at first but now that I've used it I'm convinced I could not have made a sock without this book. The first sock I tried to make for my daughter had so many holes in it once she put it on that I'm not even going to take pictures to show you. It was truely pathetic. The Queen gives you great tips on how to knit socks that look like they are done in the traditional way without all that fussing about with picking up stitches and what not. On to the pictures!

Here is a full shot of the progress I have made thus far. I have also started the second sock on a set of DPN's. I've found that I don't like fussing with two needles (as reccomended in the book) and I don't like starting all that tiny knitting on circulars at all but I do love the magic loop way of knitting once I have gotten past the toe. Isn't that a beautiful thing? I'm using Addi size 1 needles (40") length. For my next pair I'm going to try doing two at a time.


Here is a close up of the toe, I wish I could have gotten a better photo of how neat the increases are. It looks just like a traditional toe that I have seen knit on many other cuff down socks but it was done toe up. I love this approach as I'm not only able to have the BF try them on as I go, but I also don't have to worry about running out of yarn as I knit these socks for his huge feet!



This is a close-up of the heel flap. I knit this with a slip stitch pattern suggested in the book to add stability and cushion to the heel. For the next pair of sock I'm going to try adding this to the toe as well. It does make a really nice cushion, it looks well and I think it will help make the socks last longer. Don't you love how it looks like I knit a traditional heel flap by picking up stitches?! Well, I didn't! It was so much easier. I have tried all that picking up and knitting before on tiny needles with tiny yarn and I just couldn't make it through, but I love the look. Now I have the best of both worlds.

I also learned the difference between the regular Addi's and the "Premium". When I first tried the magic loop I hated it, the cords kept getting in the way and it was very akward. Then I got another set of Addi's in the black package marked "premium" at the bottom. Oh what a difference! The cord is much more flexible making it a lot easier to knit with. If you have tried magic loop before and didn't like it because you didn't find the cord to be flexible enough, make sure you are using the black package, it might make you a believer *smile*

I've also been playing around with the drum carder A LOT. Here is a brief photo summary of my journey...
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The green is a mix of 70% blue face leicester and 30% alpaca. It's very soft and very lovely. I dyed this with Wilton's Cake dyes, came out gorgeous. I will try to get up some pictures of how the yarn is spining up later this week. I have about 24 oz. of this stuff and what you see above is about 16 oz. I also carded some blue face that I had dyed a deep navy blue with some soy silk. This stuff is hard to control on the carder let me tell you! I'm definatly going to need more practice with processing the finer fibers. I've been using a cat brush to get denser batts to and to control fly aways. Right now I can get about 1.5 oz. on the carder at a time before it starts getting mad at me for loading too much *smile* I'm still trying to decide if I should run that blue roving through the carder a few more times to blend it more or to spin as is. I have about 2 oz. of this all together. I think it will make some nice socks for my daughter or a nice scarf for me.

I also spent my New Year's volunteering for the Tournament of Roses yet again. I was on post parade duty yet again which was great because once the floats are finished being viewed by the public we get to snatch all the pretty flowers and take them home. The flowers that are pictured above with my BF sock are mainly from the Subway Float. I have a ton of pictures which I plan to make up another page for and post there so be on the lookout for that. It rained a pretty bitch on Monday but by Tuesday we had beautiful blue skies. Unfortunately by then I had already caught a wicked case of death so I can't say I had as much fun this year as I did last year. Plus to top it all off I still had to come into work today because the term started today. Ugh, why can't the students just figure out what do to on their own, why do I have to tell them where to go and what classes to teach... but I guess if they didn't need me to do that I wouldn't have a job so let me stop complaining right now.

I'm taking my sore, tired, coughing butt home now so I wish you all a belated Happy New Year!