skein

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!  

 

 

 

 

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!

Heart & Sole socks

This is the third offering from the Socktopus club.  (All photos can be clicked to enlarge)

Yarn: Yarn Yard's Toddy, in a lovely clear red (though this makes it very difficult to photograph!)
Pattern: Heart & Sole socks by Ysolda Teague
Started: 1st July
Finished: 11th July
Needles: 2.25mm

This is a toe up pattern. After completion of the toe, there's some sole shaping: decrease each side of the sole, increase each side of the centre of the sole. The stitch count remains the same but the chevron style shaping gives the sole a curved look.  Once you reach the start of the gusset increases, you stop the shaping on the sole and start increasing for the gusset - but at the bottom of the foot rather than the sides.

Modifications:  Not really a modification, but I started the toe with my favourite and easiest toe up start - the Turkish cast on.

After knitting one foot I frogged it. In my opinion the sole shaping is a waste of time, it didn't 'hug' my foot any more than the normal foot would, and I hated knitting it.  I did do the gusset increasing on the bottom of the foot, increasing into the stitches below (as I felt that this is a flat enough increase, and quite invisible).  Because of where you increase, you don't need to do a heel turn.

Cuff:  I knitted 3 rows of garter stitch before doing the picot cast off.  I think it gives some symmetry to the one purl round at the start of the cuff.

The yarn's lovely to work with, these photos do not do it justice! I have more Toddy in stash ...

Taking Turns socks

Pattern: Taking Turns by Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Louet Gems Pearl
Started 9th June
Finished: 20th June
Needles: 2.25mm

These were knitted for June's SolidSocks theme on ravelry, which was white or natural (undyed).   Last summer I put relevent coloured yarn into monthly sock bags, for SolidSocks and SKA on ravelry, so I had a little surprise at the beginning of the month.  I thought I had no white/natural sock yarn, but when I opened June's sock bag there it was, some white yarn!  It's the first time I've knitted white socks. Can't say I wear them much, but it was far easier on these middle aged eyes than dark sock yarn.

It's a lovely pattern, very easy to memorise. 

Finishing these means that I only had the New England socks on the needles last night (Saturday) plus Hey Teach!, so of course I've cast on a 'quick' baby top today! 

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! 

Anniversary Socks

 

The colour is darker, and more purple!
Pattern: Anniversary socks from Favorite socks
Started: 5th April
Finished: 25th April
Needles: 2.25mm circular
Yarn: Yarn Yard Bonnie in purple - as part of the SolidSocks knitalong for April (ravelry)
Modifications: none, except for knitting the leg for an extra 1/2 inch. These are longer than usual legs - I think about 9.5" before starting the heel!  Although the instructions don't tell you to end at a certain row, I like to finish on the completion of a pattern repeat, just so it's easier for the second sock. I don't take great notes, and have to rely on my memory and being able to easily read the knitting.

The pattern is best seen on the foot:

and the toe was different too.  Instead of usual toe decreases, at the sides, this one was done in three places, so you can see two of the decreases on top  of the toe (if you look hard) and the third one is underneath.

There's a flurry of posts this week, trying to get everything blogged before the end of the month. As it is, I don't think I'll be getting photos of Twist just yet, this might have to wait until the weekend, and let's hope we have fine weather.  The buttons are on though!

Anniversary socks

by Nancy Bush, found in IK's Favorite Socks book.

These are my SolidSock's April offering. The colour this month is purple.  Love the colour, but it's so difficult to capture with my camera!

There are sock designers who I just love, and Nancy Bush is one of them. I've overlooked this pattern, thinking, mistakingly, that it might not be a great carry-along project. But I'm wrong.  The pattern is very easy to remember.  The lace panels are easy-peasy, as is the twisted 2 stitch cable (I'm never sure what to call this - I think of it as a fake cable) every 4th row.

This is purple. It looks (to me) quite blue but it's definitely purple!

Last night I managed to buy a copy of Cookie A's Sock Innovation at IKL.  I love it!  There's lots I want to knit, right now!  I'm going to hold off and finish these ones first, I suspect that next month's SolidSocks pattern  (and for several more months) might be from this book.   

Other knitting -

Twist - still not seamed

Ingenue - haven't picked this up all week, but I will work on it over Easter weekend

Mystery Blanket April squares - stay tuned, I have 1.5 squares left, and hope to do these in the next few days.

Plain socks - couldn't resist, I do like a pair of plain socks on the go. I'm using vintage Opal sock yarn.

I can see I've upped my number of WIPS, but a few are nearly done.  Must Knit Faster!

Tesserae socks

These are my SolidSocks March knitalong. The colour was green, one of my current favourites.

Pattern: Tesserae by Anne Hanson
Needles: 2.25mm
Yarn: Ranco solids
Started: 21st March
Finished: 28th March

That second sock took me just a day! 

For colour:

For texture:

It's a lovely pattern.  A variation on basketweave, and very simple but effective. 

This means I have just two things to do for March, but sadly I know I won't get them both done.  One is to start another garment for NaKniSweMoDo (love that word!) which I'm going to do today, but the other one, to finish Twist, won't happen. I still have a sleeve and all the edgings to do, as well as sew it up.  I will be so close as well!  
Off for a wonderful afternoon watching dvds and knitting.

Tesserae socks

This month's SolidSocks colour is green.  My initial thoughts were to merge my knitalongs for SolidSocks and SKA.  SKA's theme this month is either lace, a mystery lace knitalong or any Cat Bordhi pattern.

First attempt - lace knitting.  My yarn, Ranco solid, didn't look good in lace.
Second attempt - Cat Bordhi pattern from her New Pathways sock book.  By the time I'd flipped from pattern to back of the book to find the toe, to front of the book to find the cast on, I'd had enough. This book might be a gem - lots of original ideas - but every time I've tried a pattern I've been too frustrated to  carry on. I need books with less padding and tighter editing.  The diagrams confuse me. The terminology irritates me (can't see the reason behind renaming stitches as mother/daughter/granddaughter, and renaming increases with silly names).  I'm getting to be a grumpy old woman in my middle age! it's such a shame as I love several patterns in this book. One day ...
Third attempt - texture, a pattern by Anne Hanson called Tesserae.  A great pattern with a very simple repeat.  When the sock's stretched out the pattern is a little like basketweave, but I just love it on the needles.  I knitted the leg in an evening.

This flashless indoor shot shows off the texture.

and this one shows off the colour.

Exactly right for the yarn.

I'm a bit behind this week.  My plans were to finish this sock and finish both fronts of Twist.  I'm on the second front, just about to start the armhole decreases.  I'll do that tonight.  Then it's Twist's sleeves. Have I ever mentioned that I don't like knitting sleeves?  I think it's because they increase in stitches rather than decease, and that I'm liable to forget to do the increases regularly.

Eleanor Socks

These were suck a quick knit!  Remember that I tend to work on several things at once, so  finishing these in 9 days makes them quick - and they were a pleasing knit.

Pattern:  Eleanor by Monkey Toes. This is a ravelry link, the designer died suddenly and her website no longer works.
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Cool Fire
Needles: 2.50mm circular, changing to dpns for the foot (no reason, I fancied a change)
Modifications: none, except for working one more pattern repeat on the leg.

This had joined Juta's stocking as being a great lace pattern which is so easy that you can carry it around with you without having to refer to a chart or instructions. 

Smooshy's a great sock yarn, too, it really makes smooshy socks. My other knitting has been Rowan's Glace, a cotton yarn, Jamieson's chunky shetland and now Gjestal Naturgarn No.1, so Smooshy feels very soft and luxurious after these 'harsh' yarns.

A great knitting project.  I have another two pairs of socks which I want to finish in February - the ones I'd planned to knit (Lorna's Laces GK December yarn for Chris) and ones I didn't plan on  - some dk alpaca socks, cast on this morning on the way into work. These will be for my brother, who needs warmer socks for his arthritis.  I bought some alpaca socks last year at the IKL day, and he loved them, commented on how much warmer they were than the other handknitted socks (which were wool and he'd thought were the best until the alpaca socks). These are long overdue!