skein

Little Child's Sock

Another FO, the last for a while, I think!

Pattern:  Little Child's Sock from Vintage Socks

Started: 5th October

Finished: 7th November

Needles: 2.25mm

Yarn: Violet Green Christobel Merino Sock

Mods:  Knitted another four rows in pattern on the foot, to lengthen.

 

This was the October SKA knitting - texture.  It was also meant to be the October Solid Socks knitting, but I failed to hit their deadline of finishing in October.  The colour was purple.

Now in daylight, and fluorescent lighting it looks very purple, but in tungsten it looks very pink! It also looks pink in early gloomier light!

This is the daylight photo:

This is the early dim daylight photo

Such a difference!

The pattern is pretty easy.  It's 2x2 ribbing, stocking stitch and double moss stitch. 

The yarn is a sock yarn - merino wool/nylon blend, but it's very soft and I found it stretched out a bit when I had to drop stitches and reknit them.  I think I'd use this yarn for other projects in future - scarves, shawls, mitts, even baby garments, as it doesnt' feel scratchy at all.  Just not socks, unless they were baby or child's socks.   Not to put anyone off, it would be wonderful for other things!

My other sock might be frogged - it's the Winter's Eve sock. It's the yarn,  Austermann Step. It's not popping the stitches on the travelling cable pattern.  I still want to knit these, but in a more springy yarn.  After my wasted evening threading the beads on the yarn for the second sock I think I've had enough, no point in knitting them if I hate the knitting part! I shall put them away for a few weeks, but I suspect they are for the frogpile.  Funny, I kntted the Gentleman's Lozenge sock in this very same yarn and that pattern looks good!

 

Socks and more socks

I've not done much knitting this week, the commute, though short, has been overcrowded and no seats, and lunchbreaks are a bit manic!  I feel as if I have done nothing all week, just pick up dropped stitches and repair mistakes!   Garment, shawl, 3 pairs of socks and beekeepers quilt makes for too many WIPs for me so I'm culling one.

 

It's this one.  A brave idea, knitting two socks at once, but it's dreadful knitting and I'm not enjoying any of it.  the stitches are all uneven (where I've been picking up stitches which were split or dropped)  and it's slow and fiddly.  

Bye-bye Flying Saucer socks!

Now what to do with the yarn?  I am not winding it up separately, so I may just knit a pair of fingerless mitts with the yarn doubled,  hope it makes a mad pooling pattern!

The Little Child socks are still going well, though I keep messing up the very simple textured pattern.  I've accidentally deleted the photo I took on my mobile this morning, but I'm workign the gusset decreases now.

 

 

And new socks!  These are beaded socks, Winter's Eve.  I've made a few mistakes with these too, so much wasted knitting time!  But I'll persevere.  These will be for SKA October challenge.

Pretty beading on the cuff

I'm going to try to finish the first purple sock, and get the leg and heel and gusset knitted of this sock over the weekend - and do some shawl knitting!  

 

 

 

 

Petrouchka Socks

My first foray into SKA Sockdown 5!

Pattern:  Petrouchka socks

Yarn: Enchanted Knoll Farm EFK Superwash in Emerald Lake

Needles: 2mm

Started: Sept 1st

Finished:  October 9th

 

This is my September offering for the SKA challenge.  We have to cast on in September and cast off by 31st October.   I wanted to get these ones finished before casting on the next ones!

The pattern was fun and fairly simple, if you don't mind travelling stitches.  Caoua Coffee was one of the SKA September designers. 

One pair down, and I have another three pairs on the go!

New socks on the needles

The problem with knitting socks is that they go slowly, especially if you have several pairs on the go at once!

Currently I have the Flying Saucer ones, which aren't goin that well.  I keep dropping stitches and splitting yarn.  My tension is all over the place too!  I'm much better with one sock on the needles.  It's amazing how a little tiny bit of difference in tension sends the identical stitch pattern awry. 

I can truly say that I am over this knitting two socks at once malarky.

Onto the newest socks.

I'm combining Solidsocks October colour (purple) with SKA October (texture) and knitting another pair of socks from the Knitting Vintage socks book, Little Child's sock. 

Believe it or not I had no solid purple in sock stash, and had to order some from Violet Green!  It's a purple colour with more red than blue.  More obvious under tungsten lighting, it looks practically burgundy.  Yet my purple t-shirt stays purple!

 

It's a very simple pattern; 2x2 ribbing, then some double moss stitch, more ribbing and I've just completed the stocking stitch section.  Next is more texture, just 38 more rows to the heel!
Oh, and I have more SKA socks lined up - some beaded ones this time!   I'm going to try to get a lot done by the end of the month.  My niece freaked me out a bit on Facebook, she has just 6.5 weeks to go to due date, so I need to get some baby knitting done in November, fingers crossed the baby arrives on time, not early!

Gentleman's socks

Pattern: loosely based on Nancy Bush's Gentleman's socks in Vintage Socks.  I changed the heel to a heel flap and gusset.

Started: 20th September

Finished: 29th Septtember.

Yarn: No idea, probably Socka in an airforce blue.

It was a bit of a rush finsihing these off, Mr C infomred me that they needed to be finished by Wednesday - on the previous Friday evening, when I'd only knitted the leg of sock #1!  Bear in mind that I work, and had something on on Tuesday evening! 

I took them into work to post and my (old) camera took one photo and packed upx, so the other is from my mobile phone. 

This is probably closer to the true colour :

This is with the camera - rather sunny and the colour is so washed out but you can see the pattern.

All this rushing around to finish them has put me off deadlines, so I have already cast on Mr C's birthday socks (not untill December). 

Socks progress

Another pair of socks is off the needles.

These were part of Get Knitted Lorna's Laces sock club which has now finished.  This shade is Laendler.  I like my LL's to stripe, so it's just plain knitting, top down, with a garter stitch short row heel.

Started: August 27th

Finished: September 18th

Needles: 2.25mm

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd sock, Laendler.

A lovely quick knit.

The mystery socks for SKA are going well. Clue three is done, and I'm thinking that the next clue will be the final one, and will entail knitting the foot and toe.

The yellow's ... yellow!  Quite bright! This has the Eye of Partridge heel, not sure if it's obvious in the photo (but it clickable to enlarge).

SKA September Mystery sock

I seem to be drowning in Nesta at the moment, but I do have other things on the needles!

SKA's September challenge is either a Wendy Johnson design in any colour, or yellow socks, or a mystery sock in yellow yarn.  I'm doing the mystery sock (designer is Nancy Bush!) and we've had two clues so far.

Clue one was the cuffs, ending with a cool braid.

 

This is the real colour, the following photos are looking a bit washed out, but it was cold and gloomy outside when I took them!

I had to reknit the braid, mine was a little loose.

Backs - just 1x1 ribbing and then stocking stitch.

 

Fronts - a pretty lace pattern, very easy to memorise, so great for carry along knitting.

 

Very sunny yellow!

 

New England Socks

This is a pattern which has long been on my wishlist, and I've only just gotten around to knitting it, purely down to SKA and the June theme - Nancy Bush patterns.

Pattern: New England Socks by Nancy Bush
Started: June 6th
Finished: June 25th
Needles: 2mm
Yarn: Regia silk, pale blue.

Love the pattern!  I think I avoided knitting these because of the smaller needles and longer leg, but really, the pattern means that time flies.  I've been knitting on other things in between, but the second sock, for example, took only four evenings.

I keep thinking that I'll have a break from sock knitting, but it's addictive, and there's soooo many patterns I want to knit and haven't yet.  I'm not going to participate in SOS (summer of socks, ravelry) this summer, due to NaKniSweMoDo, but with SolidSocks and SKA I think I have my hands full anyway.

Hey Teach! is going well.  Back and two fronts are done, just sleeves to go - but as I've only used three of five skeins of Cotton Fleece for the body I'm going to knit longer sleeves, so it's Sleeve Island time.  I now know why I need many wips (or maybe just two or three) - my hand is aching from spending knitting time on just this garment since Friday.  I'm resisting casting on, but a ball of Zephry laceweight, in marine blue  has jumped out of box #3 and is sitting next to me now....

Current knitting

Mid week knitting catch up. 
I had a whizz weekend as far as knitting goes.  Finished the mystery blanket squares for June on Saturday and cast on several socks on Sunday, as well as finished a small Ishbel.  But then I spent wasted the past few evenings dithering, looking through crochet books, thinking I might start that crochet blanket I've been meaning to start for the past six months.  No such luck, the yarn is back in the bag behind my chair, and I'm back to knitting!

1) Ishbel knitted, just needs blocking.

This is the small shawl, and the knitting part really doesn't take long at all. 

2) 2x2 ribbed sock, in an alpaca sock yarn (label is missing). A bit boring,  but if I pick it up now and then it will eventually get finished.

3) Solidsocks June. The theme is white/natural yarn. I'm using some Gems Pearl. Pattern is Evelyn Clark's Taking Turns, and I'm down to the heel already.  A very easy pattern, this is the current carry-along project.

4) SKA June. I'm knitting a Nancy Bush pattern called New England socks, in pale blue Regia Silk.
This is the second attempt at this pattern (I am too impatient sometimes, and rip out too soon) and the third attempt with this yarn so I'm hoping this time it's a good combingation of yarn and pattern! 

This is the back - this pattern is continued for four inches, and then it's just plain stocking stitch.

And this is the front. 

Regia silk is lovely, but it's a bit floppy, and when I think of this sock I think of a nice woolly sock yarn.  But I'm surprised at how nicely it's turning out.

5) Dawn - NaKniSweMoDo #6.  I have 10 rows of ribbing on the back (you work your way down over the shoulder) and the back neck edging to finish. Oh, and the buttons, and the sewing up, but these shouldn't take too long.

Finally,.
6) Not started, but we found out today that an ex work colleague has given birth this morning, to a baby girl.They've been trying for several years, so this is very happy news for them.  So, what does that mean? Better get the baby wool out, quick!  I may have to drop everything for a few days and get a cardy to her asap!

So, this week I'm going to try to block Ishbel, finish Dawn, knit a baby garment and finish sock 1 of Taking Turns, and knit the leg of New England socks! 

Marie Antoinette socks

As usual, my camera is being a bit petulant about the correct colour!
This photo taken at home before I left for work (too pale and pink)

and this one taken outside work an hour later (too dark!)

and this one an hour later!

This last one is a better colour. 

Pattern: Marie Antoinette by Knitspot
Yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool, in Amethyst
Started: 2nd May
Finished: 21st May
Needles: 2.25mm
Modifications: none

I love the bees pattern, I love the beehive pattern.  Easily memorised, so you don't need to refer to the chart.  Having pattern repeats to work is a little like knitting with self striping/patterning yarn, one always wants to work to the end of the repeat, I'm sure it speeds up the sock knitting.

This was knitted as part of May's SKA (ravelry group).

Unfortunately it's pretty difficult to take a photo of the back of your leg!  Especially first thing in the morning, with people walking past!  I wanted to show off the bees a bit better, you can't see them on the top photos.  And btw, this is a more realistic colour!

oops, a bit out of focus too!

These were very nearly not finished last night.  All day yesterday I had an urge to start something new, which wasn't a garment nor a sock - a shawl! Those shawls at IKl are terribly tempting! Looking at the Wollmeise colours and shawls on ravelry had me convinced that I'd get in last night, go straight to my Wollmeise stash and cast on. Common sense prevailed. i had half a foot to knit, and Primrose Path needs finishing. 

I bet I start a shawl over this Spring bank holiday!