8 posts tagged “socks”

I did a little fan girl knitting in honor of the new Harry Potter movie. This is a free, Harry Potter inspired pattern on Ravelry and is called Fawkes. According to the blurb on the pattern, the stitch motif is designed to look like a flame, which I think it does.

 

This was a great pattern and I'm thinking about knitting it again out of a solid colored yarn that will really show off the stitch pattern. I almost knit these out of a solid hunter's orange yarn that I have, but then switched yarns at the last minute. I may still go back and knit the solid orange pair at some point. I ended up knitting them out of Pagewood Farms Alyeska sock yarn in the Fabulous Fall colorway. The colors in this yarn just reminded me of some of the pictures that I'd seen of Fawkes. Given the 10% cashmere content, this yarn was a bit splurgy, even for me, but it was an absolute dream to knit with. I was a bit worried about running out of yarn. The yarn requirment on the pattern was 350 - 400 yards and the yardadge on this yarn is only 360. Of course, I made the socks a little shorter than was called for in the pattern and had plenty of yarn for the socks plus a little left over for my sock yarn blanket (which I'll talk about in a later post).

 

I'm trying to decide what to do next in terms of knitting. I have a lace cardigan on the needles that I really should be working on, but all I really want to do is cast on for more socks and the Wicked sweater. We'll see how disciplined I manage to be.

The summer school session has left me pretty short on knitting time over the last six weeks, but I did manage to finish up a couple of projects in the last week. The first was the Shay Cap Sleeve Pullover from Valley Yarns.

 

This is knitted on size 6 and 8 needles using Knit Picks Comfy yarn in the Blackberry colorway. I chose the comfy yarn for it's cotton content and washability. Plus I just really love how that yarn knits up. For a nice easy sweater, I sure had a hard time with this pattern. For starters, I just did not get along with the cable in the pattern. I kept messing it up and leaving big holes in it. Plus I wanted something easily memorizable and mindless. I ripped it out and replaced it with a modified version of the diamond cable pattern from the Rose Tyler Wristwarmers. I'm really happy with how the substituted cable came out. Then I had a heck of a time getting the appropriate number of stitches picked up and the short rows done correctly on the sleeves. I had to rip each sleeve out and start over again at least three times. Finally, I couldn't quite get the ribbing around the neck right. The first time through, I left big holes around my picked up stitches and ended up with a bind-off that was so tight I could barely squeeze my head through it. I ripped it out, redid it and then used a sewn bind-off and it worked much better.

 

Now that it's finished, I'm not sure how I feel about this sweater. I don't wear sleeveless stuff and the little cap sleeves on this sweater are pretty close to sleeveless. A friend suggested that this would be a good sweater to wear over a long-sleeved t-shirt when the weather gets chilly. I like that idea. I might get more wear out of it that way. It's also a very snug sweater. I knit the size that would have zero ease and I was hitting pretty darn close to gauge, but it's a good thing that I lost 10 lbs between when I began knitting it and when I finished knitting it, because otherwise, I'm not sure it would have fit.

The second project that I've finished is the Broadripple Socks. These have been in the queue for a about a year, but I'm just now getting around to knitting them.

 

The yarn is Misty Mountain Farm Jubiliee. These aren't really my colors, but I picked this yarn up from the half price bin at my LYS last year thinking that I would use it to learn to knit socks with. Then when it was time to learn, I magically bought new yarn for my first socks, so I'm just now getting around to knitting this yarn up. I'm not sure that I love the yarn, but the pattern is great. I especially love how these are knit on size 3 needles! It makes them go so fast. I'll definitely make this pattern again, just with a yarn that I'm more in love with.

 

The only thing that I think I'll change next time I knit these socks will be the number of rows of the "garter ripple" stitch that make up the cuff. With as short as I make my socks, the number of rows called for in the pattern just seems like too much.

I turned in my final grades for summer school tonight, so hopefully I'll get some more knitting time in over the next few weeks. I certainly have plenty of projects on the needles to keep me busy and I was thinking about casting on for another simple sweater soon. Although there is a lot of traveling in my future, so we'll see. M. and I are headed out tomorrow for our annual summer trip to Missouri. I'm not looking forward to the 90 degree weather there. It might put a damper on my desire to knit.

This is another pair of socks that started with the yarn. Our LYS got ShiBuiKnits Socks yarn in a few months ago. My friend C. and I were both drawn to this colorway (#5001) and both ended up buying it. Then we decided it would be fun to cast-on with the yarn at the same time even though we were making different sock patterns. We cast on at our Wednesday night knitting group. The reaction of the other groups members was something along the lines of "So, you two are knitting with the same yarn at the same time, but making different patterns???.... Well, that's just nutty.". On top of that, this is the Nutkin sock pattern. Thus these have become my Nutty socks.

 

While I love the colors in this yarn, when I looked at projects made with it on Ravelry, it pooled really, really bad in most patterns. My goal was then to find a pattern that would control the pooling in the yarn. I had heard that Nutkin pattern did a nice job of breaking up pooling in handpainted yarns, and it certainly delivered. I made a few modifications to the pattern. First the pattern as written has a fold over edge on the cuff that requires a provisional cast on. I've done this type of technique on a hat before, but didn't want to mess with it for a sock, so I did a standard 1x1 twisted rib.

 

This pattern was also written with a short row toe. I was in the middle of a basketball game (March Madness!) when I hit the toe of the first sock. I've never done a short row toe, so I would have had to have waited until after the game was over when I could focus on the knitting and I didn't want to wait, so I just did the same old toe I normally do. The pattern sort of makes the toe twist up, but I don't know if it would have also done that with the short row toe or not.

 

 The one thing that I did keep the same is the short row heel. This was my first attempt at a short row heel and I think it's a bit of an unusual version of a short row heel because it uses yarn overs instead of wraps. I've got to tell you that I wasn't a big fan of the short row heel until I got to the end of it and realized that it meant I didn't have to pick up gusset stitches. Suddenly I saw the appeal of the short row heel.

 

I do think it gives the sock a bit of weird appearance. It's just this flat tube of knitting and then suddenly there is this heel sticking out.

 

This yarn is really stiff. A lot of people rave about this yarn, but I'm not sure I like it that much. I'm going to see if it softens up some with washing, but so far I think it's been my least favorite of the sock yarns that I've knitted with. I do like the socks though. I wish they were just a little bigger, but they fit. Also, I've noticed that when I first put them on, something about the pattern or just the way I put them on makes the cuff twist around my leg some.

 

This has been a big finishing week. I tend to go in cycles with my knitting. For a while I'll be casting on and then working a little bit on multiple projects and then I just can't handle it anymore and power through some projects just to get them finished up. I'm trying to keep myself from casting on anything new until I finish up the dress I'm making for M., but then she also wants a pair of Hokie socks and I was thinking those would be a perfect project to work on while I proctor an exam Thursday night. We'll see... We'll see....

I have only gotten about two hours of sleep in the last 36 hours and I have already said a lot about these socks, so I'm only going to say a couple of quick things and then I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures so that you can gaze upon their awesomeness. I ended up moving to size 2 needles and that worked like a charm. They fit and knitting them wasn't nearly as painful as it had been on the 1's. Only thing I wished I would have done differently is to have stayed on the 1's for the ribbing and then moved to the 2's when the pattern started. The ribbing seems a little loose. These were worth every painful minute. They were worth the ripping out and starting over. And they were worth the orange dyed hands. I never would have thought it was possible to fall in love with a pair of socks, but I'm definitely in love with these. And now pictures:

 

 

 

This is the current state of my beautiful Jaywalker socks. Let me tell you a little about the history of these socks. This yarn orginally belonged to my friend, S. She was making a pair of Jaywalkers, toe up with the yarn and I just fell in love with them. She wasn't loving the process of knitting them and was worried about how much she would wear them once she was no longer a Hokie. So, when she discovered that she had knitted the sock way too big for her foot, she frogged it and decided to not remake it. I convinced her to swap me the yarn, so that I could make the Jaywalkers with the same yarn.

I cast on for the first sock about three weeks ago. I have been hating the process of knitting it, but I absolutely love the sock. I have been concerned about the size of the sock since I was about 3 inches into the cuff. I felt like it was going to be a bit on the small size, but I convinced myself that they were supposed to be snug since the pattern isn't very stretchy and I kept on knitting. Last night I had knitted all they way through the gusset decreases and I tried the sock on again and decided that it was indeed too small. So I frogged it. I have decided that it's the yarns fault. The yarn must be cursed.

I'm going to cast on for these again, because I just love them so much. Now I just have to decide whether I'm going to go up a needle size (from size 1's to size 2's) or whether I'm going to go up a pattern size on the same size needles. My inclination is to go up a needle size, but really this is just because I'm lazy and don't love the process of this pattern. If I knit the same number of stitches at a larger gauge, it will go faster, but if I knit a larger number of stitches at the same gauge, it will take longer. I'm just worried that the increase in gauge won't size it up enough to make it fit.

When I first started knitting, I purchased a Boye interchangable needle set. I have never been very happy with it. The cables are really stiff and I don't think I could magic loop with them. The needles are cold alunimum and the finish is rubbing off of the tips and sides of the sizes that I use the most. Soon after I bought the Boye set, I started eyeing the Harmony interchangable set from Knit Picks. This set is always highly rated on reviews of needles sets. They are made out of Birch and are both sturdy and beautiful. The cables are nice and flexible. I finally gave in and ordered myself a set. It came on Friday.

 

Last night I started a pair of mittens that I'm knitting magic loop style and so far, I'm pleased. I also bought some fixed circular sock needles because the set doesn't come with tips small enough to knit socks on. I haven't tried out the sock needles yet, but I have the yarn and pattern laying out to do so.

 

I also bought a fixed size 8, 16" circular to make a hat that I've been wanting to make. Knit Picks doesn't make interchangable cables short enough to knit hats in the round, but that's ok because I'm now pretty close to having a 16" circular needle in every needle size. I think I only lack two or three sizes. I cast on for the hat Friday night when I got the needles and finished it up last night. I really like knitting with the Harmony needles. Here's a couple of in-progress pictures of the hat that really show off the needles.

 

 

I've finished a few knitting projects over the last couple of weeks. Two of which are part of a bigger set, so I'm going to wait until the entire set is done to blog about it. And one that I'm not very happy with. I made M. a pair of socks out of scrap yarn given to me by a friend and I ran out of yarn just a few rows before I was done with the second sock.

 

 

What I should have done was rip back to the start of the toe decreases on both socks and remake both the toes in some coordinating yarn. What I did instead was grab some yarn out of my scrap bag and finish up the second sock. These were made for the purpose of trying out the specific type of yarn and figuring out how big to make socks for M. Now that I know what size to make her socks, I think I'll just let her pick out some sock yarn that she likes and make her another pair. It only takes me about a week to knit a pair of kid's socks.

These are the Monkey Socks from the winter 2006 issue of Knitty. I started these back in early November and then put them aside immediately to finish up Christmas knitting, so I just finished them up yesterday. They are knitted on size 2 needles with Claudia Hand Paints Fingering in the Desert Dusk colorway. I bought this yarn last summer while I was visiting friends in my old hometown of Springfield, MO, so I have dubbed them my Dickerson Park Monkeys after the Springfield Dickerson Park Zoo.

 

I was able to memorize the lace pattern pretty quickly and it was easy to figure out which row you had finished on last, so I was able to carry the socks around and work on them without being glued to the pattern. After I finished them and was trying them on and admiring them last night, I noticed this little problem with one of the gussets on one sock:

 

You are supposed to knit through the back loop the first time that you knit the picked up gusset stitches and I apparently forgot to do it on this side of the heel. This is what it should look like:

 

I'm a little worried about what that little error is going to do to the sturdiness of the sock, but as I said, I didn't catch it until they were completed. The only pattern mod that I made was to drop out two lace repeats in the cuff of the sock since I prefer shorter socks.

 

It's been a big couple of weeks for me for finishing. Last night I was down to one active project on the needles. So of course I cast on for a new scarf immediately. I've also got a pair of socks and a couple of sweaters that I plan on casting on for within the next week or so.

It appears that I'm going to back in the homebrewing business soon as well. I convinced another grad student to split the cost of a kit with me and then we will split the resulting beer. Hopefully this will help with the single variety beer burnout that I experience when I have entire batch to myself. I ordered the kit this morning and we are tentatively planning on brewing weekend after next.

Life has been busy, busy lately and I haven't had much time to knit. I have finished a couple of projects, but I've had even less time to post about them. I'm going to give the particulars and some pictures on these two and call it good.

 

This is the Argosy Scarf. It's knitted with Manos Del Urguay Silk Blends in colorway 3106. I bought this yarn at Rosie's Yarn Cellar last spring when we visited Philadelphia. I had a hard time choosing a needle size to knit this on. I started it on a couple of different sizes, but finally decided that I liked it best on 6's. I always have a hard time deciding when to stop knitting scarves. I had two skeins of this yarn, but only knit up about 1.5 skeins worth. I thought the scarf was going to be a little short, but it really lengthened out with blocking. I'm glad that I stopped when I did and almost wished that I'd stopped a little sooner.

 

  The other project that I've finished recently is my first pair of socks. I wasn't sure I'd like knitting socks and honestly, they intimidated me, but they really aren't that hard. They are also incredibly addicting. I'm already almost done with the first sock of my second pair, and I've developed a little stash of sock yarn that I'm itching to use up now.

 

These were made using the a simple sock pattern written by S. who works at the local yarn store and knits in my Wednesday night knitting group. I only put a 3 inch cuff on them since I usually wear short socks. They were knitted with Colinette Jitterbug yarn in the Toscana colorway. I knitted them on size 2 needles using the magic loop method. Magic loop was a new experience for me. I had to learn both how to magic loop and how to kitchner stitch for these. Both seem complicated at first, but are pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I love my new socks. They are so warm. I'm making my second pair using the same simple pattern, but I can't wait to try something more complicated.