FO Friday: Well, half of one, anyway

I finished the first sock! Sorry about the crappy picture- the colorway is hard enough to photograph at the best of times, but the light is horrible. On the up side, we’re expecting snow in a couple of hours!

For those of you just turning in, this is a Mock Cable Sock (although there’s not much mock about it) in Candy Skein Yummy. There’s a whole lot more information in Wed.’s WIP post, here. This sock went very, very quickly, and I’ll hopefully have his twin soon! I have a ton of work to get to, but for more detailed posts, check out Tami’s.

A Year in Knitting Review, Part 1

As the year comes to a close, I thought it would be nice to go through some of my favorite projects from the past year. Looking back, I’ve noticed that there are some major trends seasonally. As a result, I’m going to go give summaries of about a dozen of my favorite projects, organized by season.

Winter

Almost exclusively, winter was my season of socks. I vaguely remember doing a lot of Christmas knitting in 2010, and I was probably exhausted out of my mind. I ended up putting in a big order at Knit Picks (free shipping!) and enjoying the spoils: some funky sock yarns.

Trilo Socks- sorry about the bad picture! I couldn't find my old sock ones, and it is rainy and grey outside today (rhyme!)

First up, we have my Trilo Socks. Using my ever-favorite Socks from the Toe Up, I picked out the Trilobite Socks to match with some Knit Picks Stroll Multi in the Aloha colorway. I did toes and heels in a contrasting leftover navy blue, and these babies came out pretty quickly. The little bits of lace gave the pattern something extra, and the ribbing ensures that these will pretty much always fit, no matter how many times they run through the wash.

plain vanilla socks. again, I apologize for the crappy pictures!

Continuing my sock knitting trend, I knit up two pairs of socks from some more Knit Picks yarn, this time Stroll Hand-Painted. The first pair were plain vanilla socks from Socks from the Toe Up. I used the last little bits of the Aloha from the last pair for toes and heels. They came out simple and cool, exactly what I wanted. You can really see every different shade of blue and brown, and I think they have every different shade that Knit Picks makes in them. In the other pair, I added a little bit of patterning. I used the stitch pattern from the Copper Penny Socks by Nancy Bush from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn to give them a little extra va-va-voom. The lacey rib breaks up the colorway a little bit, contrasting nicely with the other pair.

Copper Penny Socks

Spring

In Spring, I think I switched tracks a little bit. School picked up a lot, leaving less time for knitting. As a result, I definitely got fewer projects finished, leaving me with only one project to showcase.

Sunrise Scarf

Here is the Sunrise Scarf. A precursor to my Flying Home Scarf pattern, I used the Sunrise stitch pattern from Vogue Knitting Volume 1 with no modifications. I only added a garter stitch border to the sides, and a couple of rows of garter on each end to keep it from curling up. I used some Newbury Yarns Handpainted, which was really really beautiful. It actually came as a souvenir from my mother’s trip to Boston, and she could not have picked something better!

WIP Monday?

Today I want to finally get back to talk about what I’m knitting RIGHT NOW, instead of introducing patterns that I actually knitted DAYS, if not WEEKS ago. So, let’s get started! I ended up marathon knitting my second slanted sock. It’s not that I wanted to work on it. In fact, I had a little but of second sock syndrome. Shhhh. Don’t tell. I just wouldn’t let myself work on anything else until I finished the socks. Couple that with a “How I Met Your Mother” Marathon on netflix, and by the time I was halfway up the foot I was feeling the pattern again.

the first sock, completed a couple of days ago- of all of the pictures of this sock, this one is closest to the actual colorway. It just needs a bit more green.

Of course, this was only the second time I’ve used Judy’s Magic Cast On for toe up socks (and the first time was the first sock in this pair!). I somehow managed to turn the sock inside out on the first row, giving it a single purl ridge right at the tip of the toe. Honestly, it doesn’t look that bad. I was so happy that I had finally gotten the right number of stitches without flip-flopping the direction of the yarn that I didn’t rip it out right at the beginning, and I’m certainly not ripping it now. And if I was doing a more textured sock, I might even purposefully do it!

purl ridge toe

In summary, these socks are made out of Knit One, Crochet Two Croc-O-Dye in a light blue/light green/white colorway. I used the Basic Slip Stitch Heel sock pattern from Wendy Johnson’s Socks from the Toe Up with just a couple of mods. Taking into account my super-tight sock knitting tendencies, I made up a size between the Med. and Large, changing the stitch count. To get the slant waves, I used a yo, k2, ssk, k5 stitch pattern on one sock (alternating with knit rows), and a k2tog, k2, yo, k5 knit pattern on the other sock (also alternating with knit rows), making two socks that go in opposite directions. It ended up being a fun little knit. The stitch pattern was simple enough to do while watching TV, and the yarn was a great colorway. It did get a little splitty at times, but that might have been my unreasonably tight/OCD guage.

second sock- goes in the opposite direction from the first one!

In other news, after talking about it for what seems like FOREVER, I’ve finally cast on the Nantes Hat, the lacey/cabley confection from the last issue of Interweave Knits. I’m just making it out of Patons Classic Wool (100% wool) from my stash in a slightly darker than lime green colorway. The yarn isn’t anything special (in fact, I think I originally bought it for felting but never actually did anything with it), but it will show off the crazy awesomeness of the pattern pretty well. Here’s the ravelry link to my project page. Still, in the end, I think I’m going to give it away. As much as I think I’ll love it, I just have too many hats, and I do have a recipient in mind. My friend has an early January Birthday, so I was going to ship her a double Christmas/Bday present sometime soon. She’s already getting my green sample Flying Home Scarf (new pattern!) in Frog Tree Alpaca sportweight, so adding a hat will really make it a nice, round double present!

Nantes Hat

Scarf Bonanza

Predictably, I finished the mini-scarf (50g of Plymouth Happy Feet Sport weight) for mom while I was at home. Also predictably, most of my blocking supplies are at school, except for the wires, which I keep at home. So, long story short, it won’t get blocked for another week and a half, when I come home for winter break. So, for now, it’s just gonna look like a jumbled mesh of bright colors in a vaguely scarf-like shape. When it blocks out it’ll probably be at least four feet long and somewhere between six and eight inches across. Hopefully, most of the gain will be lengthwise and not width-wise. Fingers crossed.

I know it doesn't look like much, but I'll block it hard...and hopefully that'll help!

Because I’m designing this project as I go, I really wanted another version of the scarf in a more solid yarn as a sample. Luckily, I have these socks that I made a long time ago out of Frog Tree Alpaca Sportweight that really are too small. I think they’re Serpentine Socks from Wendy Johnson’s Socks from the Toe Up. In any case, they’re one of the first pairs that I’ve ever made, and I don’t think I checked my gauge AT ALL on them. Additionally, when I can squeeze my feet into them, I find the Alpaca oppressively itchy- I guess I just can’t stomach it against my skin.

that's the leg, but I promise that if they're too small for MY feet, they're too small

So, I frogged. Of course, I’d forgotten how tricky unpicking a sewn bind-off is, but eventually I got it. Now I have 100g of sport-weight pure Alpaca in a nice teal-ish green color to make into a scarf. I think it’s going to be a winter birthday/Christmas present for one of my best friends. She’s a quilter/sewer, so she’d honestly appreciate something handmade. And I don’t think she’s as allergic to alpaca as I am…always a win! I cast on this weekend, and I’ve already done a couple of pattern repeats. I don’t know why they’re so addictive. I guess it’s  a great combo- the pattern is intuitive enough to be easily memorize-able, but it takes enough rows that it keeps your attention. For me, each repeat (10 rows) takes about 10 minutes, so ‘just another repeat’  really isn’t that bad!

Just the beginnings- hopefully it'll block out wonderfully!

Fantastic News!

Sorry for being a day late, guys, but I have fantastic news to make up for it. I have finished the socks! Well, I actually finished the socks yesterday afternoon and didn’t feel at all like blogging more about them, so this is what you get. Pictures…

2 completed socks. as in absolutely finished...

Pictures of finished socks…

heels

and pictures of parts of finished socks.

What I ended up doing is winding my yarn around a book, counting the wraps, and then dividing that in two to make sure I used all of my yarn. I might have squeezed one more round out of the yarn on one sock, but I’m sure my roommate won’t notice.

can you see it?

Unfortunately, this created a break in the pooling/tye-dye look (as I’m describing it for the intended recipient) on one of the socks. At this point, I really don’t care. I’m just glad they are finished!

it's a little more obvious closer up...

As I’m sure you can tell, these socks couldn’t have been finished soon enough. Notice how the ribbing is only about an inch? Yeah, I could only bring myself to do 10 rows. And those rows took EFFORT. Still, these are my plain-jane socks made out of Knit Picks Stroll Blue-Violet Multi (with some solid green stroll for toes, heels, and ribbing at the top) as a gift for my roommate. She better appreciate them.

Tune in soon for a design project. My prediction will is that, although it will be interesting and keep my attention, the yarn will give me no problems. It will come out exactly as I want it, and I will love to wear it (don’t give me that look). Swatches coming in soon!

Plain-Janes

I think I may have mentioned that I’m working my way through a pair of plain-jane socks (from Socks from the Toe Up, of course) for my roommate. In order to give them SOME SORT of excitement (!) I’m using some Stroll Multi that has been ruminating in my stash since my last big Knit Picks order. It’s light blue (denim-ish), dark blue, and some purple. For some reason, I thought that I had used some stroll multi before and it didn’t pool- but maybe that was because I had knit the socks in a different size. Because, for real, these babies are pooling like no tomorrow. On the foot and leg it’s like they are in stripes- and not the good kind.

Blue. Violet. Multi.

Still, I don’t really have much motivation to rip them out and start again. Primarily, the stockinette is killing me with boredom, and I don’t really look forward to re-doing an entire sock (and she requested stockinette instead of any sort of patterning). Also, they’re a size larger than I usually knit, so the instant-gratification that I usually get from socks isn’t really coming. Secondly, my roommate, who leaves to visit her boyfriend EVERY Thursday and doesn’t return until Monday afternoons is starting to get on my nerves (can you hear some venting coming on?). Recently, she’s started snoring, which is really, really something I desire in a roommate. Also, because the temperature is FINALLY going down they turned off the A/C for our building. Apparently, this is some sort of catastrophe for her internal thermostat, because the room has to be sub-arctic (not arctic, sub-arctic) for her to survive. As a result, her fan runs 24/7, and she leaves the window open all night (our building is right on a busy parking-lot with a bus stop). But still, I’ve survived. In fact, I have, on occasion, been nice and not-grumpy in the morning (which can sometimes be the only time I see her because our schedules are so different) and asked how she’s doing. This has not made me any more excited to work on her super-boring socks.

sock #1=complete...mostly

Still, I plug away at them. I’m just about finished with the first sock, and I’ve started the second. I know, I know, that sounds weird, but I have a plan. I only have 1 50g skein of the Stroll Multi, so I’m doing the toes, heels, and calf ribbing in a contrasting green. They just won’t be very tall socks 😉 So, after I turned the heel on the first sock, I knit about an inch in the multi, and then I put the stitches on some waste yarn. I’ve cast on the second sock, but I’m still working on the toe (bad me- I didn’t work on it ALL WEEKEND!). Eventually, I’ll try to even it out and use up all of my multi- or as much as possible. I know this would be a lot easier if I had a yarn scale, but I have no idea how to go about purchasing one. Knit Picks does have one, but it’s $20 and with shipping that’s a little out of my price range right now (I’d like to keep it under $15). If anyone has any suggestions, or at least ideas of what I do/do not want in regard to using a kitchen or postal scale as a yarn scale, I would LOVE some advice.

why isn't this sad little toe growing??? why???

Finished Object: Socks!

So, to FINALLY talk about what I’ve been hinting at for the past two posts, I want to get to my newest pair of socks. This is a pair of Diamond Gansey Socks from my favorite, Socks from the Toe Up. I knit them in Spud and Chloe Fine in a spirited lime green colorway on my regular Knit Picks US1.5 DPN’s. Here’s my ravelry project page.

so, so pretty

I had actually first gotten the yarn at Woolwinders in Rockville, MD while I was visiting my Aunt and Uncle. Before I left, I had made sure to google any yarn shops close to her. Luckily, we ended up with a couple of free hours for shopping. I browsed the store for a while, trying to make sure I picked out the PERFECT yarn. It’s a rather strange store- kind of small, but they didn’t try to pack the yarn in like my LYS at home does. The stock is spread out, which makes it easier to see all the different choices, but does cut down on the amount they can stock. In the end, I decided on a sock yarn (why not?). I had actually heard of Spud and Chloe online before, but I don’t think that I had ever seen it in person. The fine seemed like a very solid, quality yarn. I especially liked the idea of the silk content- I had never used silk in my socks before, and it sounded like warm feet for me (plus a rather pretty sheen)!  Plus it is actually 60g of wool, not the standard 50g. I can squeeze a single pair of socks out of 50g, especially if I use a contrasting color for the toes, but 60g was actually the perfect amount for me-sized socks.

Looking down

I had my wound skein actually sitting on my desk for a long time (Sweater from Hell, anyone?), waiting for the perfect time to become the perfect pair of socks. When I cast off the Ribby hat, I knew I needed something to slow my knitting mania- I didn’t want to burn out anytime soon! A pair of socks would be good- small guage+small project=takes a little bit more time, but without the investment of a sweater.

Closer up of the stitch pattern- it came out wonderfully!

A solid sock yarn as light and sturdy as mine definitely needed a stitch pattern that would show it. I haven’t actually ventured into the gansey section of SFTTU, and I chose the diamonds because they were…first. When I cast on I freaked out a little that the pattern would be too complicated to hold in my head, and that those socks would just languish on my needles forever. Boy, was I wrong. Except for that little bit of trouble I had with, you know, stabbing myself through the elbow, these things flew off the needle.  And I ended up with a pretty spiffy pair of socks, if I do say so myself!

Artsy shot from above- it kind of looks like I have no ankle, and my foot is just a continuation of my leg...

Socks from the Toe Up- My Sock Knitting Bible!

So, before I show you pictures of my newest finished objects, I wanted to do a review of what is probably my favorite knitting book in the universe. Wendy Johnson’s (is it stalker-ish of me to admit that I read her blog every day?) Socks from the Toe Up (BN/Amazon/Ravelry link) is my go-to sock knitting book. I think I bought it just after I had made my first pair of socks- a traditional cuff-down, heel flap, DPN pair made in a Encore Worsted. The socks had turned out OK, and I was really interested in trying my hand at some new ones. Luckily for me, one of my LYSs was going out of business and I was able to snag quite a few skeins of sock yarn on the cheap.

Shamelessly Sniped from Barnes and Nobles (link above)

I think I started with a pair of On-Hold Socks in some navy Wildefoote Luxury Sock on size US0 needles. Here’s my project page. Those socks came out just a smidge too small, but that one pattern was all it took to get me addicted to knitting socks. Particularly, Wendy Johnson’s Toe-Up Socks.

On-Hold Socks

Since then, I’ve tweaked my recipe just a bit. After experimenting with my Knit Picks nickle-plated DPN sampler set, I now know that if I use my US1.5’s I get a perfect fit on the size M, which should be just a bit bigger than my foot. I guess I’m a tight knitter then, especially on the DNPs. I’ve also learned that if I go 5 inches from my toe increases then that’s the perfect time to start increasing for my gusset- that took a bit of trial and error.

Trilobite Socks in Knit Picks Stroll Multi

In the end, though, I think I’ve knitted about 9 of these patterns- some more than once. I really can’t recommend this book enough- especially for people who are just starting out knitting socks. It has three plain-jane basic patterns, 16 lace patterns with varying degrees of difficulty, 3 gansey socks, 2 cabled, and even 3 patterns in sport weight. The introduction also has tons of information on knitting socks from materials like needles, accessories, and yarn to some great, simple illustrations on different techniques. I would definitely check this book out!

Lace Rib Socks in Northern Lights Fiber Co. Solar Flare Sock