Lots to catch up on

While I was working on the Elegant Ribbed Socks (previous post) the Inox needles I ordered arrived and I just had to try them out! I had planned on using this yarn to knit the Anniversary Socks by Nancy Bush from Favorite Socks but couldn't get gauge with these needles and I did feel like fiddling with the pattern so I started these...

Pattern: Merino Lace Socks by Anne Woodbury from Favorite Socks

Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Loden

Needles: #0 Inox dpns

I wasn't paying very close attention to the chart and missed an entire section of the pattern. I realized my mistake after 12 rows and had to drop those sts. down and reknit them, ARG! Then all went well until I got to the heel flap, the instructions say to - slip the first 3 sts from needle 1 onto needle 2 and then work the heel flap across the remaining sts. on needle 1 - now maybe I am missing something but I thought it odd to just skip those 3 stitches, so I knit them and moved on. Then the pattern says to - slip the first st of each row p-wise with yarn in front - that's what I normally do on wrong side rows but on right side rows I would slip with the yarn in back, slipping the yarn in front would wrap the stitch when you brought the yarn to the back to knit the next stitch. Oh well, maybe it adds some design feature, so I tried it. All it did (unless I did something wrong) was to wrap the first stitch on each right side row (as I thought it would) and make those neat and tidy slip-stitches along the flap that are so easy to pick-up, not so neat and tidy and very difficult to pick-up because they are all wrapped! Not only was it more difficult to pick-up the stitches, now the two sides of the heel flap look different. On the bright side, I learned something, my way was better! Well, while I was knitting up the flap preoccupied with that slipped stitch, I (again) wasn't really paying attention and just followed the chart to knit the flap - the lace pattern continues down the flap, very cute - but the flap as written happens to be about 2 rows too long for me, which I didn't notice until I was ready to knit the toe.

Finally my lack of attention paid off on these socks, the chart for the instep has a mistake - none of the the purl sts. are on the chart, which is glaringly obvious when I look at it now, but while I was knitting these I didn't even notice. All in all, I am quite please with these socks and the yarn, very nice, very nice indeed.

Sometime during my worrying about running out of yarn for the Elegant ribbed socks and not paying attention to the merino lace socks I picked this up from the UFO basket and decided it was time to finally finish it.

Pattern: Take a Bow cabled tank by Linda Cyr, Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer '02

Yarn: Lion Brand Microspun in white

Needles: US #5 circ.

I actually finished the knitting last spring but never got around to marking the length for the straps and grafting them on. Ten whole stitches on each strap! I just don't really like it, even finished. The gauge is too loose for me, a little too sheer, and it would look silly with something under it. I liked the cabled ribbing and the yarn looks very nice (although not in this pic.) and is silky smooth, I just don't like it. It is likely that this will soon become balls of yarn again.

There is still more but it will have to wait. One last thing, I just wanted to thank Jen for the wonderful gift she brought back from her travels, the lanolin is fantastic. I love it so much, even though I smell like sheep (clean sheep) and the cat keeps stalking me trying to take down the sheep I must be carrying, my hands feel wonderful. It worked so well, I made my husband use it on his feet (dry feet are really hard on hand knit socks) and even he was surprised by how well it worked. So, once again, Thanks.

I'm back.

Things have been crazy around here so there has been no time for blogging, thankfully there has still been plenty of time for knitting. So, lets get right to it.

These socks were an accident - I didn't plan to knit them but a recent field trip with my knitting group resulted in my "to do" list being pretty much thrown out the window!

Pattern: Elegant Ribbed Stockings by Ann Budd from Favorite Socks.
Yarn: Artyarns Ultramerino 6 in color #144 and Blue Moon Fiber Arts Heavyweight in Black onyx for the heel & toe.
Needles: #2 dpns for cuff, heel & toe - #1 dpns for foot.

I never knit with this yarn before so I was excited to give it a try. Turns out, I loved it! The colors are wonderful (you can't really tell from this picture, I gotta work on that) gently blended shades of brown and black and a blueish grey. Just perfect for a guy, so it was not surprising that my guys all wanted them (also no surprise, Dad won). The yarn itself is soft and squishy and knitted up nice and thick.

The pattern was great too, I don't remember finding any errors but I did finish these a while ago so I might have forgotten. I chose to omit the eyelet round (too girly) and make the leg shorter (it's long enough). I weighed the sock once I finished the leg because it seemed like I had used a lot of yarn and I was right. The cuff alone was 24 g. and I only had 100 g. No way I was gonna make it, so I added the BMFA yarn for the heel and toe. The colors match up nicely and the heavyweight is a bit thicker which works great for the heel and toe. I went down to size #1 needles for the foot and was able to finish the pair with a whopping 4.5' of the ultramerino left.

Well, there is plenty more but I'm out of time for now. More to come.

Hello Spring!?!

This is what I woke up to the other day, beautiful yes, but in April! I am finally ready for spring and this is what Mother Nature throws at us.

Well, I have been doing my part to encourage spring to come by knitting up some wonderfully bright spring colors!



This was my first attempt to bring on the warm weather. My son chose the yarn but after seeing it knit up decided it might be just a little too "girly" for him. I was not surprised, I had already started to size them for myself. (For some reason there is dark stripe of pink in the photo, don't know how that happened because it isn't really there.)

Pattern: Slip-stitch rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Duet in Spring Fling from A Swell Yarn Shop
Needles: US 1 dpns
Start/Finish: April 3-10

I just love this yarn, the colors are so vivid and the yarn is so soft and squishy, you can't help but squeeze it. I also like that she includes a matching solid color for the heel/toe/cuff. I love the way the solid portions bring out that color in the rest of the sock. I think it makes the socks calmer. They can be too busy sometimes with the colors changing so often and the stitch pattern on top of it, the solid parts give your eyes a place to rest. Plus, you end up with a tail at the top of the gusset so you don't even have to worry about that little hole you get there. The only problem with these socks is that they are a bit warm for spring (they are actually perfect with the spring we are having) but they don't really cry out for warm weather.

Realizing my error, (knitting warm socks to beckon spring) I knit these up in a real attempt to call for warmer weather. Just look at that yellow! If that doesn't bring the sun out, I don't know what will. If the color alone isn't enough, the yarn is - get ready - COTTON!! How's that for warm weather knitting.

Pattern: Flame Wave Socks by Ann Budd from Favorite Socks
Yarn: Cascade Fixation in color #1430
Needles: US 3 dpns
Start/Finish: April 6-14

First off, I love this book, I have already picked out the yarn for the first six patterns that I want to knit. I put the yarns in their own little basket, to help keep me focused.

The pattern is great and works really well with this yarn. I used the suggested yarn simply because I had never tried it before (and it was sitting right next to the counter in the yarn shop - looked like fate to me and I'm not one to tempt fate). I don't really care for knitting with cotton because it has no give, so I didn't have very high expectations for this yarn. Once I started to knit with it I was pleasantly surprised. The elastic in it gives the yarn a lot of stretch, but not too much. I can see how people might want to knit too tight or too loose with this yarn, but when I just ignored the stretch and knit normally with it I ended up with a nice tight fabric with an amazing amount to stretch. The cuff of the first sock (on the left in photo) is a little stretched out because I kept making people feel how stretchy it was. When I finished the pair, I held them up to show them off and before I even said a word my son said, "I know, I know, they're stretchy!" I will definitely use this yarn again, I already bought more.

Well, back to my knitting.