delicious, a smorgasbord

New socks for Tim, with a secret ingredient:

Pink stripes!

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Delicious Knee Socks by Laura Chau.

Size: Oh, can't remember of course. I think I ended up with 72 stitches, realised that they would be too big for me and decided to make them for Tim instead.

Yarn: Six of them from the toe up: Fiber Optic Yarns Foot Notes (80 per cent merino, 20 per cent nylon) in 'Black coffee no.9'; Grignasco Strong Print (75 per cent merino, 25 per cent nylon ); Zitron Trekking (XXL) (75 per cent wool, 25 per cent  Nylon) in 126 and then later in 81; Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball (75 per cent wool, 25 per cent nylon) in 'U-boot'; and Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Sock Yarn (50 per cent alpaca, 30 per cent merino, 10 per cent nylon, 10 per cent silk) in 'Blues in the Night'.
Needles: 2.25mm.

Start to finish: 10 June to 30 August 2012, so two-and-a-half months. Considering that the last pair of socks took me some two-and-a-half years, I feel as though I am making real progress here!

Stash/recycle content: All of them - the Foot Notes I previously used for the Honey Cowl, the Strong Print for a pair of socks, the Trekking (XXL) were both used in Babette (and came from the thrift store originally), Crazy Zauberball from Kerchief and Babette, and the Hand Paint Sock Yarn I got in a stash swap and used in both Daybreak and Babette.


Comments: I started off knitting these for myself but even though I seemed to be getting gauge they were going to be too big for me. And once I had finished the toe, I couldn't bear to pull it out so I knit them for Tim instead. Inspired by various projects on Ravelry, I really wanted to use up all the odds and ends of sock yarn that I have floating around from various shawl projects mostly. And really, woollen socks get worn under boots mostly so it doesn't really matter if they are multi-coloured. I followed the pattern up until the calf shaping started and knit ribbing after that instead. If I knit another pair, and I think I will, I might try for knee highs for myself. Oh and cast-on was my new favourite, Judy's Magic Cast On.

Oh, and I knit these two at a time, toe up! I'm very proud of myself. They did drag on a bit but there was certainly no second-sock syndrome difficulty. It might make it more fun to change yarns more often, although that would mean more ends to weave in ...

Verdict:  Deliciously happy. They are a great fit for Tim, of course, because I knit them that way! It was also fun to see the self-striping come out on the Trekking (XXL) which I had only previously crocheted with.

return to usual knitting form

That is, in fits and starts. Although it takes me forever to actually complete something, I think that I am, indeed, happier knitting this way - a row here, cast on there, some ribbing here, a seam there.

Currently and variously:

Whippoorwill, which Ravelry so kindly tells me, I first planned about 18 months ago. And now it's finally on the needles, a wispy sort of confection knit from Filatura di Crosa Gioiello, a sort of (hush now) novelty yarn that for some reason just appealed to me.

 I seem to have become a shawl knitter and if you are going to make another one ('another one?', that's my husband's voice interrupting) then really you, that is me, I have to make them a bit varied. I don't have any lighter coloured shawls and as I wouldn't really be one to wear so much white close to my face, this wool/mohair/cotton/nylon/acrylic blend with the little strand of gold through it is a good option. My contrast colour will be the very pretty Madelinetosh Well Water, a lovely light blue, which I will showcase when I get to it. (thank you Di for the present!).

I've also decided that it's time to deal with all that leftover sock yarn. Something practical, like socks. The toe of these is the Fiber Optics Footnotes that I knit the Honey Cowl from, then a couple of rows of Grignasco Strong print, from which I several years ago knit the 'illicit sox'. Then I moved onto some Zitron Trekking XXL (purchased from the thrift store) which I've had in stash for a while, had only used a little in the Babette blanket and am really enjoying watching the self-striping pattern emerge.

I'm using Laura Chau's Delicious Knee socks pattern as originally I had intended these to be for me. But I either measured the circumference of my foot incorrectly or mucked up on gauge or ... whatever, these are now for Tim. When I get to the heel I'll swap over to the dark blue and green Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball that I used in my Kerchief. Tim is excited about his secret pink stripes (oops, not so secret now).

There's two more - tomorrow.

undersea anemone

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Kerchief by Kieran Foley of knit/lab. This designer has lots of other lovely patterns - I hope to knit something more from him soon.
Size: One size - depth at centre is approximately 36 centimetres/15 inches.
Yarn: Schoppell-Wolle Crazy Zauberball in colourway 'U-boot' (which means submarine), 0.6 skeins; Rowan Pure Wool 4ply in colourways 'Kiss' and 'Clay', 0.2 skeins each. I really love the Zauberball and this colourway particularly and will certainly use it again.

Actually, it strikes me that the colour story in this piece is similar to my Daybreak shawl. Oooh, but a note - the Zauberball lost dye when I soaked the piece for blocking and it tinted the Clay which was actually a lighter grey. All to good end I think, it fits in better now to the colour scheme but certainly something to be aware of.

Needles: 4mm.
Stash/recycle content: none whatsoever.
Start to finish: 20 December to 25 December 2010 - wow, look what I can achieve when the mood takes me!

Comments: I came across this pattern on Ravelry on 2 December. Exactly three weeks later I was wearing it out to Christmas dinner. As soon as I saw it, I desperately wanted it. I bought the exact yarns and colourways that the pattern indicated, I attempted stranded colourwork for the first time in my life, I knit it in six days!

Given how much bulk there is to the colourwork band compared to the Zauberball sections, I'm not convinced that it might not be smarter to just knit a red band and then do some duplicate stitch ...

Verdict: Wonderful, if not a little small. I wish that it was twice the size and did consider making it larger but then decided to stick with the pattern for my first foray into colourwork. In that respect, I'm glad I did. Doing the colourwork was ok but I wouldn't say that I'm a convert - the idea of an entire garment makes me blanch but maybe a hat or some mittens sometime. If it is a small element of a future project, I won't hesitate.

necessity

I had to make this shawl. As a necessity. I bought the exact yarn that the pattern calls for (almost unheard of for me).

And I had to overcome my fear of stranded colourwork, as a necessity, because it is part of the pattern. Yes, this is the project that drove me to, well, not invention but certainly development of my knitting skills.

Basically, in on of my fits of arbitrary stubbornness I had sworn that I would never do colourwork. And that has worked for me for my ten or so years of knitting. It was actually quite helpful as it put some boundaries on the number of projects that I could aspire to and invest in. When I saw a great pair of Norwegian mittens, instead of trying to incorporate them into my mental knitting map, I could just say 'no, I don't go there'. Speaking of Norwegian mittens ...