Sock Musing and Fabric Choosing

After finishing my Rye socks, I waned to knit something else with my handspun. I grabbed a 2-ply skein made from a Blue Moon Fiber Arts Sheep to Shoe kit in Christmas Balls, spun a way long time ago.

Here’s the fiber, which I think I got sometime in 2010.

And here’s the skein.

Ravelry tells me that this skein is 304 yards, which may not be enough to make a full pair of socks. I split it evenly and started knitting a pair of simple toe-up socks.

That toe may not look like much, but I’ve knit it three times already. The first two times felt too big, but the stitch count was still smaller than I usually knit, but I’m concerned about running out of yarn. Another option is to knit the toes and heels out of a contrasting color. I should probably bite the bullet and just do that already.

In quilty WIPs, I figured out fabric counts for my Tula Pink Fox Fields quilt. The pattern is Fox Tails, a tutorial from Craftsy, and it is exactly what I want to sew right now – bold colors and diamond pattern. I’m planning on at least two more diamond/triangle quilts in the near future, so watch out!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Handspun Rye Socks

Here are my handspun Rye socks, finished on a day that looked like spring finally gave winter the ol’ boot. And then it snowed two inches this morning, because clearly we need more snow.

Rye is a free pattern from The Simple Collection, and it made for a quick, easy knit.

The yarn is Crown Mountain Farms Superwash Merino, spun 2-ply during my time in Oklahoma. I love seeing the colors transition and blend, and I am especially fond of that bright yellow stripe across one foot. When I spin, I dislike plying colors opposite each other on the color wheel (for example, plying green with purple) because it muddies the colors, but I really like the effect with complimentary colors.

I did have an issue with pesky ladders on the first sock, but I mostly solved that by moving stitches between needles during the garter stitch section to break up where the break between needles happened. It was a little tedious at first, but I got into a rhythm by the second sock. This might be a pattern better suited to being knitted on one or two circular needles so that the breaks can happen in the stockinette section instead of the garter stitch section.

Knitting notes (stitch counts, etc) can be found on my Ravelry page.

Green, Green Almondine

My green, green Almondine socks, begun last fall, are finished! Here’s how they looked as of yesterday morning.

Not bad. Sidenote: The color of these socks is a lot lighter than in the pic above; it was inside and darkish when I took that. At that point, only 1.5 repeats and a toe to knit, which I finished up last night!

After the size issues I had with the first sock, I knit the other at 70 stitches, and it is still plenty stretchy, and I had plenty of yarn to complete the second sock.

As always, Anne Hanson’s pattern is clear, well-written, and offers several sizes. The lace panel is a 10 stitch repeat that is pretty logical – I memorized it fairly quickly.

This leaves me with nothing on the needles a conundrum. What should I cast on next? I’ve gotten holes in a couple of my pairs of handknit socks recently (it’s been a long, cold winter, yo) so clearly I need more socks.

Do I CO Primavera in this orange handspun?

Another pair of Sleepy Hollows in this gorgeous chartreuse (omg cashmere)?

Or something else entirely? What do you think?

Socks and Mitts

Last week, recuperating from the flu and melding with my couch, I went on a knitting tear. My poor husband has been waiting for me to finish his Man Mitts for Many Weeks and finally, they’re done. He’s been wearing them every day.

The pattern is my own, based on knitting other mittens/gloves and sized to fit my nice husband.

Elated with that finish, I turned to my Almondine socks, lingering since last fall. These will be for my mom, and she likes her socks to be stretchy and easy to get on. Because of this, I increased the pattern stitch count to 80.

I finished, kitchener stitched up the toe, and tried them on. Perfect! Really stretchy! The foot is kind of too wide… Hmm. I weighed the remaining ball of yarn. 1.8 oz. Finished sock? 2.2 oz. Now, I’m pretty sure that I can’t stretch 1.8 oz of yarn to make a finished 2.2 oz sock.

Also: I’m sort of surprised that this is the first time this has happened to me in six years of sock knitting.

So I went up a needle size, CO 70 stitches for sock two and I’m at the heel turn. I think it is still plenty stretchy and I think I won’t run out of yarn.

Hopefully.

More Blue Socks

I am exhausted.  Family is in town (from the other side of the world, the land down under), and we’ve spent the last two days driving, seeing, touring, talking.

It was lovely, lovely time but I’m done in.  Husband and I (two introverts) barely said a word on the car ride home and as soon as we dropped our bags, he went out to run errands (man quiet time) and I put on PJs and a bathroom, put on my autumn mix of Hem and Alexi Murdoch (Lucy quiet time).

Before that, I finished the Blue Musketeer Socks. I just flew down the last sock, sped along by knitting in class and a long Sox game. I knit the 80 stitch size, because despite the small feet of the recipient, they may shrink a bit and I want to make sure she gets a lot of wear from them.

They’re really blue.

Really, really blue. So blue that I need a break from blue, what with all the blue socks I’ve knit lately (with lately being defined as within the last 13 months).

So I did the only sensible thing, which was to cast on a pair of green socks. Green and blue are very different, right?

Socks and Stuffed Toys

Here are three quick and dark iPhone snaps for WIP Wednesday!

I finished one Porthos sock last week!

C’s best friend recently had a new baby girl. He already has a little boy, and C asked me to make stuffed toys for the kiddos. The rhino is almost finished – he needs his horn sewn on and to be fully stuffed and sewn up. Last night, C and I sat on the couch, got caught up on Parks and Rec, and rolled up little balls of stuffing (like how you would roll a ball out of clay). A friend of mine showed me that trick and I’m not sure if it is correct or not, but I like that it compresses the stuffing a bit before it goes into the toy so the toy doesn’t deflate.

Rhino here is almost all stuffed and when I woke up this morning, C had filled an entire bucket full of balls of fluff, to use to finish Rhino and stuff Elephant.

Elephant is almost done too – I’ll probably finish on Thursday. The patterns are from DIY Fluffies by Mariska Vos-Bolman. I’ve made each a couple times before and they’re just adorable. The fabric is Tula Pink, Prince Charming for Rhino and Birds and Bees for Elephant. I’ve been on a Tula kick lately – you’re going to see a Pink Tula Pink quilt here one of these months!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Blue Socks and Granny Squares

My blue squiddy socks (Rav link with details) are done! Hooray! I took pictures last night and promptly folded them up and stuck them in my sock drawer – no soaking and blocking needed for this girl! (Recognizing, of course, that soaking and blocking drastically improves the appearance of knitting, but as these are just for me, I’ll block them after I wear them.)

I finished them the other night, while watching Elvis in Blue Hawaii on channel 25.2 or something. We got a new digital antenna that picks up all these random channels – we have maybe six versions of PBS – and a classic movie channel is one of them. I also started a pair of socks for a friend with this yarn:

She bought it in Philadelphia years ago, knit a toe, stuck it in her yarn basket for a while, gave it to me, I raveled the toe and skeined the yarn, and then it sat in my stash until now. She forgot what it is, so I have no idea what the fiber content is, but it is nice and a little bit more hefty than a normal sock yarn. She picked out the pattern Porthos by Caoua Coffee and I have about three inches of the cuff done – it goes really quickly!

In addition to that, I got the itch to sew a bit last night and threw together two Granny Square Blocks! I cut all the 2.5″ squares from two Kate Spain Good Fortune charm packs and organized them into blocks when I cut the fabric for Cuzco Crossing.

The outer white squares are leftover charm squares from the Cuzco Crossing quilt, quartered. I plan to use them until they run out and then make the rest with setting triangles. I’ll sash the blocks in more white and the back will have a patchwork strip of leftover squares running down the middle.

I have a zillion other things I want to make this fall. I need a new pair of mittens, a friend needs more fingerless gloves, I want to make Christmas stockings for C and I (and maybe a couple of extras for down the road for kiddos), and I need need need to finish quilting and binding Cuzco Crossing. I’m so close on that one! In the distant future, there’s a Weekender bag, a Lizzy House Constellations triangle quilt, and maybe a scrappy Tennessee Waltz. I love having a to do list; even if I don’t get it all done, planning and figuring out what to make is part of the fun!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

A Sock and a Block

I am ashamed. Ashamed to admit that this poor blue sock languished for over six months on my needles. I’d work a row here or there, it remained a scant few inches long until last weekend. C and I were up in the Waterville Valley region of NH for a tiny bit of hiking and a reunion with friends. I brought the sock, thinking that maybe I’d work a row or two and then I’d get distracted, as the knitting mojo traded places with its friend, quilting mojo.

But between being in the car for four hours plus some really excellent So You Think You Can Dance episodes, I made some great progress! The sock pattern is Squid Socks by Nikki Burns, which has been on my queue for a coon’s age. The pattern has some long swathes of just knitting and purling, but they’re just long enough that it is difficult to remember which row I’m actually on. But I think I’m in the swing of things now.

I did get a little sewing done also! Here’s March’s Sugar Block, titled Forget Me Not.

I have one more block, the July block whose name I forget, cut and ready to sew as well – I’ll post a picture later this week/month! Linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced!

Two Blue Socks!

Technically, my last FO of 2012 is also my first FO of 2013. I finished Mom’s Marilinda socks on the 30th, while “watching” the Pats beat some other football team but couldn’t for the life of me find a darning needle. Somewhere in the detritus of my life, I have a small green bag that originally was part of a Clinique Free Gift set that my mom got several years ago that holds all my knitting tools like stitch markers, small scissors, and darning needles. That and my needle roll were once inseparable buddies, but it has gone missing. It is probably somewhere in my closet and will resurface when I move next month. Anyway, no darning needles were to be found in there.

I also used to keep a darning needle in my knitting needle roll. I’ve kept one there for green-bag backup for quite a long time. But then I used it to embroider my On a Whim quilt with the names of the couple. For a while, it was floating around my kitchen table, and then it was on my night stand and then it disappeared. Again, I’ll probably find it and several more of its kin when I move next month, but darning needles do have a tendency to go missing.

When I explained all this to the fiance, he looked askance at me and said, “needles just… go missing?!” I could tell he was having visions of deadly sharp weapons hiding in carpet and on floors, just ready to stab a foot TO THE BONE. That’s not really what happens, especially as darning needles are pretty blunt and I wear slippers around the house. But it probably would behoove me to take better care where I leave them.

Anyway. I made a stop at a nice Joann’s in Concord last night and bought TWO PACKS of darning needles, one of which will live in my sewing kit for backup. Last night, I Kitchenered up the toe and Mom’s Marilinda socks (rav link for deets) are finally done! They are stretchy and blue and long and my mom really likes them!

…And then I cast on for a new hat for me. Because my old hat makes me look:
a) doofy
b) like I’m 12
c) ludicrous
d) all of the above.

We’ll see if this new hat is an improvement!

One Blue Sock

One of the reasons for all this Christmas music was to give me blog fodder in the period before Christmas. There’s a lot of craftyness going on behind the scenes but its mostly in bits and pieces.

Case in point: one blue sock!

The pattern is Marilinda by Cookie A and I’ve literally been trying to knit these socks since before Mother’s Day.

That’s right, these were supposed to be a Mother’s Day gift.

I did have some pattern difficulties. They’re for my mom, and she likes socks to be stretchy. The first two patterns I started were both way, way too small. Sadly. And then I remembered Marilinda, which seemed perfect, and this sock was knit in about a week. And there’s two inches of the second sock! I’m hopeful that they’ll be done by Christmas.

In other crafty business, I’m working on four pillows and one quilt and undisclosed something. I’ve made a spreadsheet with dates by which things need to be done and I am hopeful.

What are you hoping to finish before Christmas?