FO: Elf socks

I now have in my possession some fabulous (if I do say so myself) elf-themed socks. These were not the most enjoyable of projects, and if I made them again I would make some more changes... but I think they were worth it in the end.



Pattern: Tauriel by Josiah Bain
Yarn: 75% wool, 25% nylon, my own hand-dyed with tea (see this post for details).

Mods: Shortened the ankle by 1 repeat, change heel to twisted-slip-stitch to keep the flow of the ribbing/cables, kind of ignored the instructions for the toes and partly winged it.



Notes:
Mistake the 1st:
I probably should have made a larger size. I balked at the cast-on stitch counts for the sizes above small; even though I do not have small feet, I rarely if ever need to cast on more than 68 stitches for socks. So, even though in my brain I knew I was a medium, I cast on for the small. As a result, the cables are stretched to maximum. Luckily, they are super-stretchy since it is basically ribbing with some cabley twists thrown in. The socks fit and are pretty comfy nonetheless, but I think they would look better a little less stretched. Oh well. Should have trusted the pattern.

Mistake the 2nd:
I shouldn't have shortened the ankles - these turned out slightly shorter than I normally like my woolly socks. Oh well. Still fine.

Mistake the 3rd:
I misjudged how long the toes would be. The pattern says to begin the toe shaping on one of several cable pattern rounds, and if the socks aren't long enough by then, to do ribbing until it gets to that point. I think mine look out of proportion because of where I started the ribbing. I probably could have gotten away with continuing the cables for longer and then doing a more rapid set of toe decreases. Never mind.



Despite these frustrating details, I do like the socks and will wear them a lot - none of these things are bad enough to make me want to frog and start over. Definitely in the Good Enough category of FOs. I'm excited to have finally used my tea-dyed yarn, and look forward to seeing how it holds up to washing.

For those keeping track, this skein was part of my Sock Yarn Stash Match category. 3 more skeins to go!

And finally - anyone else heading to the Edinburgh Yarn Festival this weekend? I am so excited and will post a (probably incoherent, babbling) recap of events afterwards. If you see me, say hello! (I'll probably have a ravelry badge labeled Notpanicking. And probably my Colour Affection. And will be ogling the Old Maiden Aunt yarn stall, among others!)

FO: Crystalline Socks

Remember these?



Pattern: Crystalline Socks by Cailyn Meyer

Yarn: 75% Wool, 25% Nylon hand-dyed with Wiltons Icing colours.

Mods: I crossed the cables on every quilted stitch row, rather than having the quilted pattern out of sync with the cable pattern.



Notes:
These socks were lots of fun to make. I really like the quilted lattice stitch pattern - a good choice for variegated yarns. I plan on using it again, or a variation on it, with some other variegated yarn I have. I actually thought this yarn was going to be more variegated than it ended up being. There is much more green in it than I thought when I dyed it. In any case, I loved watching the colours change as I knit and slipped stitches.



Slipped stitch rows went really quickly, as well. Had I not taken a long break to knit some gift socks (which I now remember I haven't shared on the blog yet), these would have been finished in short order, since they flew along.

FO: Pomatomus

My Pomatomus socks are finally finished! They have been on the needles since April last year, and I'm so pleased to be done with them. I love them. They are my most impressive socks - as in, the ones I'm most impressed with myself for knitting.



The pattern, of course, is Pomatomus by Cookie A. The yarn is Project B from the now-defunct Ariadne Knits in Montreal. It's 80% wool, 20% nylon, and rather smooshy. I bought it on a visit soon before moving to Edinburgh, and it was one of the lucky stashed items that made it into my one suitcase. The colour is golden yellow-orange and fabulous. (And more luminous than my camera could handle). In the skein it shone like its own light source even buried in my stash box. Heh.



As for the pattern, it's not that difficult. It just takes persistence. They took me so long to complete because of the concentration required. Whenever I thought I had internalised the pattern enough to be able to read my knitting, I'd mess it up. I learned that I had to keep a careful eye on the chart at all times, and that really slowed me down. I also put the knitting aside for long stretches while I worked on other more immediately satisfying things.



But I do love them now that they are finished. The yarn and pattern are a perfect match - if I could only knit with semi-solids I'd been a contented knitter. The only real mod I made was to end the toes and graft them together having only decreased to 20 stitches, rather than 12. They would have been far too pointy for my feet otherwise.

Finishing these is extremely satisfying. Now I can start something new, guilt-free!

Just because

In the spirit of silliness, and inspired by your comments on my last post, here are the latest adventures of my hungry Pomatomus sock.

Considering an apple

YAY A MUFFIN. Socks like muffins.

Tea tastes best in a silly mug

I promise I'll have something other than these socks to show you next time, but thanks for indulging my madness!

Choices

There is something extremely liberating about waking up early and then finding out I don't have to work until this afternoon. All those hours that were previously scheduled and spoken for now open up ahead of me with possibilities.



I could clean the house, or go running, or start writing a novel, or something. But I think I'll just sit with a larger-than-usual cup of tea and plow through the rest of this gusset.

(I don't think there is a flattering way of showing a sock at this level of completion - is there?)

WIP update

Last month I wrote about my plans for knitting on my honeymoon. I thought I'd bring two sock projects and a shawl - in the end, I didn't even bring the yarn for the shawl. The two sock projects are going well, however.

First up are my yellowy-orange fish socks.


The ubiquitous Pomatomus by Cookie A. - I'm really enjoying the pattern so far, though I know if I stop paying attention I will easily cause a disaster. I am about to start turning the heel on these, and so far I haven't made any mods.

Next, some boring boring man socks. (Not socks for a boring man, though!)


The yarn is actually dark green. I intended to make Mr Pitt's Socks by Kaitlyn Wong for my husband (husband!). These are a close approximation. Amidst my frustration at having to restart several times, I completely ignored the pattern which begins with 2x2 rib for the cuff, and did 1x1 instead. This isn't a weird mod or anything, but it's strange for me since I'm not a fan of how 1x1 rib looks when I knit it, so I don't usually do it without being asked! (Yes, I should really try out combined knitting which may fix my problem - maybe some day I'll get around to that, but today is not that day.) Anyway, not a big deal, but just a little bemusement from me.

More WIPs at Tami's Amis!

Golden scales

Oh hello WIP Wednesday. Been a while! I've finally got something new on the needles.

My sunny pomatomus socks have been a welcome contrast to the gloom and rain over the last few days.



After spending many months on my wedding shawl with its long rows and very long repeats, this sock feels speedy in comparison. Had I started these socks after a relatively simple project, I'm sure they would seem much more difficult. Funny that. I haven't finished one pattern repeat yet, but it still feels like I am making progress.



Go see some more WIPs at Tami's blog!

First-footer FO

My Devon socks are my first FO of 2012, given that I almost finished them in 2011. Since they are socks, and they are the first FO of the new year, I've been calling them my first-footers. Not sure what sort of luck they'll bring - maybe a year full of socks?

The light in my flat was terrible today when I was attempting pictures, so these are the best I got. The socks fit, though!


Something weird is happening with the perspective here - my left foot isn't really massively larger than my right...



I used hand-dyed yarn blogged about here. I love the colours, but I do think it is just a teeny bit too busy. If I'd somehow managed to make the blackish parts less intense/contrast-y, I think the pattern would show up better.

The pattern is Cookie A's Devon. It was an enjoyable knit, even though I did them one at a time; I'd forgotten how quickly one sock can go! I'm not too keen on the way the yarnovers show on the foot section, but disappear into the leg section. To be honest, I'd prefer them to disappear in both, like the original pattern photos. I can only assume the model has skinnier feet than I, so hers don't stretch the yarnovers much. If I made these again, I might try using some hole-less increases instead of yarnovers to see how that looks.



Here's to more woolly socks this year! (And more FOs at Tami's blog.)

White Balance for the Win

I've always had trouble photographing greens with my camera. You may remember my frustration with everything green looking teal on my screen (not that I don't love teal, when the knitted project is ACTUALLY teal...) At some point I learned that setting white balance might help with this. I didn't know how to do that with my camera and then forgot to figure it out.

Until a few days ago, when I was messing around and stumbled upon it completely by accident.



Here is the first of my lumpy, unblocked Devon socks, by Cookie A, looking kind of colour accurate. At least, they look accurate on my monitor. Your mileage may vary. How is it different from before? I think it looks a lot less blue than my original picture of the yarn, even with all the attempted colour correction in photoshop:


The yarn, with no white balance adjustment: most of the yellower greens don't show up. Also the light is shining on the yarn in an annoying way, but never mind.



Anyway, this is pretty exciting. It may not solve all my colour problems, but I'm glad I figured it out, and I feel a little dumb for not knowing about this feature on my camera, even though I've had it for a few years. I have a Canon Powershot A590IS - if you do too, like me have lost the instruction manual, and are looking for the white balance, it's available when you set the camera to manual (M on the wheel at the top). The second icon down the lefthand side of the display, underneath ISO, gives you various options including "custom," which lets you set the white balance. Hurray!

The first sock went pretty quickly, and I made sure to cast-on for the second straight away to impede second-sock-syndrom. Better (blocked/modeled) photos to follow when I get this one done!

WIP: more socks

I got the Sock Innovation book by Cookie A as a gift last Christmas, and thought it would be good to actually start on a project from it before this year's gift-giving festivals. Here's my Devon sock so far.



For this one I've broken out the dpns and gone for one at a time. I'd forgotten how quickly a single sock can knit up this way! Haha. It's a pretty fun pattern so far, and surprisingly intuitive. The pattern doesn't lend itself to Two-At-A-Time knitting, since it involves poaching some stitches from previous rounds, etc - plus I think I'd get pretty confused, but we'll see how I feel when it comes to starting sock #2.

I have to respectfully disagree with the book that this sock pattern is great for variegated yarns, though. This yarn was supposed to be semi-solid when I dyed it, but turned out more variegated, and now I fear it's a little too busy. I can't quite make up my mind about it, though, so I keep knitting... It probably doesn't help that pre-blocked lace looks pretty terrible most of the time.

ETA: these are socks for me, not presents with a looming deadline - sorry if that was unclear! I just wanted to use my Christmas present at least once before Christmas rolls around again :)

FO: Team Sweden Socks

Pattern: Fleegle's Toe-Up No-Flap No-Hassle socks, sort of.

Yarn: 100g / 437 m 75% wool, 25% nylon, hand-dyed by me. I had about 25 g left over - can you say hexipuffs?

Notes:

I cast-on 24 stitches with Judy's Magic Cast-on and increased to 60 stitches. I should have increased more or used a larger needle, since as I went along my gauge got a tighter, so the socks are a bit snug. I'll see what happens once I wash them, since I didn't block them.



I initially intended to use Priscilla Wild's no-hole shortrow heel from the Lifestyle socks, since I suspected the Fleegle heel wouldn't play nice with the self-striping yarn. This heel looks lovely, and did in fact have no-holes - a first for shortrow heels with me. It's an excellent choice if this kind of heel fits you, but you hate wrap&turn shortrows. However, as much as I tried, it didn't fit me. I ripped it out and tried again about 3 times, having lengthened the foot, moved things around, etc... but to no avail. That's it, I'm done with shortrow heels when I knit socks for me. Blast my giant insteps. After frogging the heel so many times, I got fed up and frogged the socks in a fit of rage. I usually do anything to avoid starting over, but this time it was cathartic.



After all the frustration and frogging, the final incarnation of the socks went pretty quickly. I love the Fleegle heel. Love it. It's tidy, easy, there are no wrapt&turns, and no picking up stitches. As you can see, it did change the stripes a bit, particularly on the instep, but I don't mind. The fit around my heel is excellent, and I will definitely use this again for toe-up socks.



I didn't do any special stretchy bind-off, since I usually find I bind off loosely enough... but this time everything was running tighter than usual, and I think a stretchier bind-off would have been a good idea. Oh well. I can still get them on, and they'll probably stretch out more over time. If not, I'll redo the bind-off at some point.

This yarn is a test for the durability of food-colouring-dyed yarn. I am almost positive it won't run, since it didn't when I washed it post-dyeing, but part of me is still a little nervous that I'll end up with greenish-brown stripes after the first wash. We'll see!

See more FOs at Tami's Amis!

p.s. I got a job! A temporary seasonal low-paying Christmas job, but a job nonetheless. Permission to feel like a productive member of capitalist society, for a few weeks at least :P

Got stripes

It's wet and gray out: a good day for staying in with some super bright sock knitting. The good news is, the construction next door has been less noisy of late. Ah, peace.

Check it out - my self-striping yarn actually stripes! Success!



(Colours are wrong - it's not quite this orange in real life, and the blue is darker)

I originally intended the blue and yellow stripes to be equal width, but I didn't have two jars that were the same size. When I dyed it, I put blue dye in the smaller jar and yellow in the larger jar - as it turned out, I couldn't fit enough yarn into the blue jar. So the yellow stripes are wider. I'm okay with it.

I haven't followed a pattern so far - just CO 24 with Judy's Magic Cast-on, and increased every other row for a 60-stitch sock.

When I get to the heel, I'm going to try something different. There are a variety of heel options for toe-up other than the standard wrap&turn short-row heel, and I haven't decided which one to try. I'm considering the Fleegle heel and Priscilla Wild's No Wrap short-row heel, but will look at other options, too. Any suggestions? What's your go-to heel for toe-up socks?

(edited to add: this is the self-striping tutorial I used)

FO: Twisted Socks

I finished my neon green socks!



Pattern: Twisted by Jodie Gordon Lucas

Yarn: Elann Sock it to me 4-Ply, hand-dyed with food colouring



Mods: Continued the twisted-slip-stitch-rib down the heel flap, instead of doing the woven/reinforced heel. The ankle portion is slightly shorter as well.

Notes:
I made the size M. These took me a long time because I started them completely wrong, and I got a bit bored of them partway down the ankle. Once I got to the foot part all hell broke loose! No boredom here, just mad crazy knitting! I did these two-at-a-time with magic loop, and that may not have been the best idea. I knew going in that the socks had reverse shaping, but man - in the moment I got totally confused a bunch of times. But I made it. Woo!



These socks are very clever, and I love the result. This is a "trust the instructions" kind of pattern - everything turns out in the end. I'm not a big fan of how the pattern was written, however: it's confusing to navigate, and some key information is put in weird places. It seems like even the explanatory notes have explanatory notes... This is okay in Terry Pratchett novels, but not so great in knitting patterns, in my opinion. YMMV. There were some things that I wanted clarification about that were completely ignored, while other (seemingly obvious) things were over-explained. Obviously, what's obvious to me isn't necessarily obvious to others, so fair enough. (Let me say obvious a few more times. Obvious obvious obvious.)

One of my problems is I've gotten a bit cocky when it comes to sock knitting, so I don't pay as much attention as I should. When non-standard sock constructions come along, I'm bound to do something dumb in my over-confidence. I know how to make socks - I don't need to read these wordy instructions thoroughly! (Except, you know, I do.) Consider me duly chastened.



Whatever. In the end, I love them. The toe-petals look just how I imagined, and I think they are so sweet. I may or may not ever make these again, though.

See more FOs at Tami's Amis!

That's better.

When I last posted about my Twisted socks, I was on the point of frogging them due to pattern-reading failure.

I did, and the difference is pleasing, though not especially obvious in the photos.

Before: note the loosey-goosey slip stitches


After:


(I don't actually have a pink kitchen table.)
Hurray! Twisted slip stitch rib, as it was meant to be. See how much tighter and cleaner it looks? For once, I'm happy I frogged.



The frogging adventure set me back quite a bit, but I'm catching up now. Yay for neon green socks!

Twisted slip rib - ur doin it rong

Chugging away at my Twisted socks, I idly glanced through the pattern, something I have not done since casting on. (Uh-oh)

The abbreviations list caught my eye--specifically "Slp." Slip stitch purlwise? But... that's what I've been doing all along, when instructed to Sl1!

I'm so used to following patterns that assign the abbreviation Sl to slip purlwise that I automatically started slipping my stitches this way on these socks. Completely missing the whole "twisted" part of this slip stitch rib. Whoops. In fact, there's a bit in the pattern notes that specifically says Sl means slip knitwise... but since I only looked at the pattern to see how many stitches to cast on, I didn't notice. My bad.



What you see here is a regular, untwisted slip stitch rib, created by slipping the knit stitchs purlwise every other row. Pretty, but not what this pattern intended. I briefly considered leaving it and continuing in my nontwisty rib for the rest of the socks, since it looks okay. Ultimately, I think I like it better twisted, so I think I'll rip back and actually follow the pattern. (Deliberate disregard for pattern instructions is all fine and good, but since I chose this pattern because I liked it as written, I'm going to stick with it.) Sigh. Commence frogging!

WIP: Twisted socks

I burned myself out on socks last year, making three pairs as Christmas gifts, and haven't knit any since. Needing a project that doesn't take too much concentration, I finally cast-on for some more.



I dyed the yarn last year (apparently I like green), but have been hesitant to use it, since the base is the same as the yarn I dyed with easter egg dyes that faded horribly. If this fades similarly, I'll just dye it again, I think.



The pattern is Twisted by Jodie Gordon Lucas from the Spring+Summer 2010 issue of Knitty.

Check out more WIPS at Tami's Amis!

2KCBWDAY2: Skill +1UP

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?

Learning how to knit socks two-at-a-time with magic loop was probably the most significant / awesome upgrade to my knitting knowledge in the last year or so. This technique has significantly increased my desire to knit socks, and I love having both socks finished at the same time. No second-sock syndrome? Woot.


Okay so these are mitts, but the principle is the same.

While the technique isn't ideal for all sock patterns, it works for lots of them. Patterns that involve shifting stitches around a lot don't work so well by virtue of the constraints of magic loop. I think it is easiest for socks that can be divided in half - so, the front half of the leg/foot is on one side of the magic loop and the back half is on the other. Also, it's extremely fiddly at first, and the yarn will get tangled at some point. Maybe many times.

I actually like knitting with DPNs, but I find magic loop more convenient for portable projects. It really helps to have a circular needle with a long, flexible cable, though - I mainly use Hiya Hiyas for two-at-a-time knitting, and I like them a lot. (disclaimer: they didn't pay me to say that!)

If you are interesting in trying it, here are some tutorials I found helpful:

Knitting Giraffe's Magic Loop 2-at-a-time Tutorial (for top-down socks)
Silver's Two Toe-Up Socks on One Circular Needle Tutorial

This technique works for things other than socks, too! (see photo above).

For more Knitting and Crochet Blog Week posts, search for 2KCBWDAY2.

further inspiration fodder

I received two sock books for Christmas. Fittingly, I'd knitted both of the givers socks for Christmas, but they couldn't have known that when they bought these books for me! I joked that now I have no choice but to become a hardcore sock knitter. While I'm not ready to cast on any more socks at the moment, I do find poring over these books very inspiring. 2010 was my year of committed sock knitting - maybe in 2011 I'll become hardcore? We'll see.

Think Outside the Sox is full of crazy. I mean that in a good way, but wheee. There are lots of patterns ranging from fairly standard to insane in terms of construction, techniques, and colours. At the risk of seeming dull, I'm currently more drawn to the fairly standard ones than the wild ones, although I love browsing and considering the insane ones. I'm most likely to knit the Interlochen Cables socks by Angela Sivers. Not sure why I like them so much, but the simple cables appeal to me. I also love Drip Candles by Kirsten Hall, which looks like a great pattern for using up leftovers.



I'd been eyeing Sock Innovation online for some time, so I was excited to look through the book. Some of the patterns are daunting, and I look forward to the challenge - I kind of want to make them all, but I'm not sure where to start. Currently Devon, Cauchy, and Rick are vying for top of the queue.

Also, in awkward fangirlishness... I got the book signed when Cookie A was in Edinburgh a few weeks ago.

omgsuchafangirlomg

Celebrity knitters, you guys. I can't remember the last time I got a book signed by its author, but there you go. The opportunity presented itself and I felt compelled. (Obviously, she was super nice. And while we're at it, I also chatted a bit with Anne Hanson, who is also super nice. Whahey.)

FOs for the men: Part 2

More manly socks. You'd be forgiven for thinking I've posted the same boring gray socks twice in a row. In fact, these are a different pattern and yarn from the last - I couldn't face making two identical pairs of boring socks! Hehe. (Boring in a nice way, of course).



Pattern: Globe Trotter Socks by Jodie St. Clair

Yarn: Regia Solid 4-ply

Notes:
I enjoyed knitting the seed-stitch rib pattern. The fact that there are two rows to the pattern, rather than the same thing every row, added some interest.



I made the 70-stitch size. Just a note if you're thinking of making this size: I don’t think you can do a slip-stitch heel on an odd number of stitches, but the pattern specifies 35 stitches for the flap. (Or can you? Am I being dumb?) Anyway, it wasn't working for me - constantly slipping an already-slipped stitch at the beginning of the row wouldn't have worked out for long. After doing a few rows and getting a bit confused, I decreased to 34 stitches for the heel flap and it worked fine.

These were the last gift I made for Christmas, and I almost didn't make them. But my fiancé kept saying "Oooh, I like socks!" while watching me knit the socks for my dad, so I thought he'd appreciate them. It's difficult to knit a secret project when spending most hours of the day with the recipient, however; when he got off work for the holidays I had to be creative about hiding away and knitting for a few minutes at a time... I finally finished the socks on Dec 23rd - not bad timing, if I do say so myself.


we don't actually have a dramatic sloping floor in the flat

Sadly, they are a bit short. He doesn't seem to mind, but next time I'll make the foot longer. I offered to unravel the toes and add a little more length, but he got all protective and said I couldn't take them away! A good sign?

See more Friday FOs at Tami's Amis

FOs for the men: part 1

Next gift on the list: socks for my dad.


(pictured on my dad's feet)

 Pattern: Mr. Pitt's Socks by Kaitlyn Wong

Yarn: Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Socka Mit Bambou, light gray overdyed with various combinations of Wiltons icing dyes.

Mods: I cast on 72 stitches instead of 80, since 80 seemed huge and my dad's feet are not wide. It seems to be the right width. I did these two at a time - if I hadn't, I would have gone mad with boredom. This is not the most thrilling pattern - k3, p1 all the way through - but it serves its purpose for plain socks.



The photos I took before sending them show the colour a little better, but not much: just imagine it is a very subtle semi-solid purplish gray.



From what I can tell, the reaction was positive... but I won't promise anymore manly socks to my family again right away! I'm sick of ribbing. (Ask me again in November and I might have a different answer).