Down to The Wire

Well, 2011 is winding to a close and I finished my last pair of socks for the year.  Officially, if anyone is counting besides my anal self, I have finished 34 pairs in 2012!  I don't necessarily plan to improve that record next year, but I am full of anticipation about what 2012 will bring and have a couple pair lined up and ready to be cast on.

Meanwhile, I thought I would show off the last two finished.  I finished the Spiral Stashbuster Pair last week.  I neglected to show you what the yarn looked like before I started knitting them in the last "in-progress" post.  It's interesting to see how the individual colors look compared to the blend.  Also, as you might suspect from the date on the photo, this is some of the yarn left over from doing these.  They don't take much of each individual color.

 

Yarn for Scrappy Stripes

 Here is what the finished socks looked like:

Scrappy Stripes

A very fun knit.  This pattern will go into my "go to" binder.  As will the next one I finished.

Pattern: Thumbelina by Lisa Dykstra
Yarn: Paca-peds in Paccacino

Swirls in my Coffee

A very fast and fun knit.  My only complaint would be the "opposite" pooling effect that happened in the foot/gusset of the sock.  Not sure how to avoid this, but I might have to make it my mission to solve this problem since I have more similarly dyed yarn in my stash.  Otherwise, I love them.

Happiest of New Years and Happy Sock Knitting!

Nana

Color Story

I started knitting the Late Summer Socks the day the state fair started in Iowa.  I initially dubbed them the State Fair socks for that reason, but it really didn't work as a project title.

Coffee, beer, a sock-in-progress and chocolate... what more does a knitter need?

As I continued to knit these, I began to notice something about the colors in these socks:

They were a nice reflection of the colors nature was putting on display here in Iowa as the summer came to an end and fall started to stake a claim on the landscape. 

Late Summer Socks

They are now finished and mailed to my DD #2 who was born 30 years ago this week.

Wait 'til you see the colors of the new socks I just cast on... I hope nature lives up to that palette this fall!

Happy Knitting,

Nana

Actual Knitting Content

I really have been knitting; I’m just really lackadaisical about sharing my progress;

So in the interest of not driving readers crazy, I thought I’d try to do a little post every day this week about what I’ve been doing. 

Here are couple recent FO’s

My August personal sock club selection: Pumpkin Vine socks in a very non-pumpkin, eye popping turquoise:

Something Lacey Socks

Pattern: Pumpkin Vine Socks by Fern Pea

Yarn: Koigu KPPPM in color 2130 104(turquoise)

Size 2.25mm dpn  

I enjoyed this pattern, but it won’t make a repeat appearance in my knitting queue anytime soon.  It was frankly a little on the intense side.  The pattern is repetitive, but not easy to memorize so you really need to stick with the instructions; it is not charted because there is a changing stitch count (decreases in one row, increases in another) I wouldn’t recommend this to a newbie.  It makes a pretty sock, but is really bad for carrying around or social knitting.  I guess I’m a little bit of a glutton for punishment though, because my September selection is even more intense and very chart heavy.  (But it will be gorgeous if I survive the knitting part)

I also finished my August Mystery Socks:

Pattern: KLC August KAL as yet unnamed by the lovely Jen Hansen

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock in Vancouver Violet
Needles: Size 0 magic loop

The next thing is a quick little cowl I whipped up out of this yummy Rabbit Ridge yarn that I got in Alaska.  There might eventually be a pair of fingerless mitts or mittens to match, but the leftover yarn is in my back burner project queue for now.  I give you the Forget-me-Not Cowl. 

Forget Me Not Cowl Un-blocked

I have since blocked it and it looks better than this pic, if I get a chance I will post a better picture. I doubt I will take the time to write up this pattern, but if somebody asks, I can give them a recipe.

 

That’s all for today, stay tuned for the first installments of the WIP series…

Happy Knitting,

Nana

A Sock Knitting Fable

There once was a sock knitting Nana who was valiantly trying to keep up her sock knitting obsession through challenges and peer pressure.  A most important date was looming close on the calendar.  A Major League event of sock knitting known as the Sock Summit was soon to arrive.  She had just finished up a lovely pair of Pirate socks and was working on a nice pair of stranded socks called Zirkel.  She also had recently cast on one last pair for July; a pair of cabled anklet socks that she hoped to get knit in time to wear during the Summit. 

The week of the Summit arrived and she was busy packing and getting everything in order before leaving. Now it was the day before leaving for summit, her packing was mostly finished and it was time to pack her knitting.   She carefully reviewed her class assignments to make sure she packed the right yarn and needles and was surveying her WIPs to decide which projects deserved to be her travel knitting during the Summit.  The cabled anklets were a definite go since she was more than halfway through the second sock.  A shawl in progress made the short list.  She knew that she would be able to finish the anklets during her airport and plane time, so a second project in the carry on would be a must.  She hesitated about whether to cast on another pair of socks, since she probably would start something at the Summit.  She pulled out the Zirkel socks; she had been slowly making progress and was well past the gusset on the second sock.  The pattern wasn’t a great one for knitting while distracted, but she was close enough to the final repeat that she thought it might be okay to bring them along.  Then she noticed something about sock #1… something awful, something disappointing.  There was a mistake in the second to last repeat on the foot, an obvious mistake; the kind of mistake that makes you look at what you knitted and almost want to cry.  She had to make a decision.  She could let the mistake go (it was on the foot after all), carry on with sock #2 and have the pair completed by the end of Sock Summit, or she could frog back to the mistake and re-knit the foot of the first sock correctly and then carry on with sock #2… this process might be too much for travel knitting.  There was barely any time left to consider the options.  So poor little Zirkel sock was banished to the naughty knitting corner and left at home.

Nana took a picture of the naughty sock and brought it to Sock Summit. 

Naughty sad Zirkel sock

While there, she consulted many knitters about what to do.  There were a few in each camp.  Some heartily embraced the philosophy that if the mistake doesn’t matter to you, it shouldn’t matter to anyone else.  Besides, it was on the foot, which would be in a shoe, and therefore, would technically not be seen.  Others sympathized with the knitter and felt her pain and understood the need to knit things properly … especially when the pattern was so, so pretty, no matter where the mistake was located.  Ultimately she packed empty needles and an extra skein of sock yarn & pattern in the event a new cast on was called for.  She also brought along the shawl.

She had a lovely time at the Sock Summit and learned many new and inspiring things (not to mention acquiring many new and lovely things).  She hadn’t forgotten about the naughty sock, but was glad for a few days to think about its fate.  After all, only she could make the “right” decision about what to do.  The anklets were finished on the airplane before arriving at the Summit and worn with pride during the event.  They fetched many lovely compliments.  The shawl grew a couple pattern repeats, and the extra skein ended up being cast on to test knit a larger size of an in-the- works pattern.  All in all, wise choices abounded.

The knitter arrived home, tired but inspired.  She looked about and realized that while she was away, August had arrived.  There were August socks to be knit!  A bag was pulled for the August personal sock club; a yarn was selected (by the designer!) for the August Mystery sock knit along… casting on was immanent. She had a pair of socks that she started during class, but they had bugs to be worked out and charts to be written. She felt the pull of the shiny new patterns waiting to be cast on, but, then she spied the sad and lonely Zirkel sock; the one that had the mistake, just sitting by itself off in the naughty corner. 

She knew what needed to be done. 

She checked sock #2 to see where she had left off in the pattern (no sense making another mistake!) then set it aside for a moment.   She picked up sock #1 and gave it a pat, then carefully, unpicked the grafting (which was un-characteristically finished), she frogged.  Unraveling a stranded project takes great care and patience.  She was gentle and understanding of the occasional tangle.  She picked up the stitches and lovingly worked sock #1 to match where sock #2 and then spent the evening knitting the two socks in tandem to the beginning of the toe shaping… they were lovely and oh so ready to be finished.  The next morning she worked the toes and then gave the finished socks a well deserved soak.  

Happy Finished Zirkel Socks

The moral of the story is, when you love the knitting, mistakes can be forgiven with a little patience and a lot of care. (plus you could end up with some really pretty socks)

Happy Knitting,

Nana

Getting Ready

We had a great trip to WA and the weather actually cooperated during the outdoor wedding ceremony.  I can't believe how fast this summer has been zooming by!  It seems like all of my knitting projects lately have been tied to the next event or trip.  I don’t even know where to start with catching up so.  The best I can do is to just show you what I've been up to: 

First up June socks.

 

Fool's Rush Socks

Fools Rush - this was my June personal sock club selection.  A very pretty, quick and easy pattern.  I knit them in Claudia Handpaint which was a bonus because the stuff is like melted butter in your fingers... especially after knititng with cotton and linen yarns. My ususal 2.25mm needles on dpn. 

 Next up; the challenge for SKA in June was to create a DYO pattern.  I may have gone a little overboard... I did three.  I have the patterns written up and am lining up test knitters as I type this. I'll add these to my design's page once the test knitting is complete.  

Western Wear Socks

Keeping it Simple Socks

Rain at the Falls Socks

Western Wear - Lions Brand

Keeping it Simple - Noro Kuryeon Sock - Color S150

Rain at the Falls - Dream in Color Smooshy - Cloud Jungle

Then June became July and there was a new SKA challenge... Stranded socks.   I took the bait on the mystery socks and started a pair of Zirkel.  These are still in progress because there was a little frogging due to size issues, but they are coming along nicely.  Sock #2 may have to wait until august though.

Zirkel (really bad picture)

And for my personal sock club, I may have fudged a little to pull the bag with the stranded pattern inside (keeping it all in a theme you know):
Jack Sparrow's Favorite socks:

Stranded in the Seaweed

I knit the Jack Sparrow top-down instead of toe up.  I used the Claudia again (Chocolate & Scouts Honor) and a little bit of some Sunshine yarns sampler that I had in my stash.  Those little mini skeins are really coming in handy!

Also, do I need to mention that Sock Summit is just about a week away? I am so excited! I am looking forward to the trip tremendously. I have been fussing over which yarn to bring for my classes, what unofficial events I want to participate in, in a frenzy making stitch markers for the stitch marker swap and project bags for a couple of people from Rav who deserve treats,

Reversable!

printing up agenda’s, figuring out what to wear and most importantly which knitting bag to bring.  That seems to be giving me the most trouble at the moment.  I have to consider many important issues when it comes to a choice of bags (I have several to choose from) since I really need to limit what I am traveling with.  1) It has to be a reasonable size – not too big, not too small.  2) It should have pockets 3) it needs to be flexible for the different activities I’ll be doing – 4) It should be lightweight (very important considering what will be inside it) Alas, none of my bags fit all my criteria, but I can make concessions if I opt for my back pack with a few smaller bags to accommodate different things for different activities… I just think my back pack is ugly and boring and not a very good knitting bag.  Sigh, I’ll figure it out before I leave.
Well if you aren't overwhelmed yet, I might be just a little.

Let me know when it's safe to come out... she's crazy!

Happy Knitting

Nana

Surf's Edge Socks

This project was the “test knit” for a pattern I created a few years ago.  I have intended to write this pattern up for a while now, but knew that I needed to recreate the sock from my notes to be able to make it a workable pattern.  Here is the original version of the sock:

The inspiration for this pattern was the way that the sand looks at the edge of the shore from the movement of the waves.  If you’ve ever walked along the beach by the ocean or even a large lake, you’ll notice that the movement of the waves carves ripples and grooves into the sand at the edges of the beach, also as the waves recede there are little bubbles of foam that form and create sort of a lacy border between the wet and dry sand.  I wanted to create a piece of knitting that captured this effect.

This is the best example I could find... you get the idea

After reviewing my notes from the original pair and examining the socks after many a wearing; I determined that I couldn’t just open my charting softwear and chart / write up the pattern as it was created.  There were a number of design elements that affected the look, fit and wear of the finished sock.  So, I actually needed to revise some of my original design and the best way to do that was to knit another pair.

Firstly, my stitch counts and repeats didn’t work mathematically.  For some reason I used 75 stitches which made a cuff that was very loose and required a drastic reduction during the heel and gusset transition to make the foot fit.  I’ve learned a lot about sock fit and construction since then and made adjustments to correct both of these problems.

Visually, I was able to represent the rippled sand effect with the cable stitch used in the original version, but the lace/eyelet pattern made a lacy border which didn’t quite evoke the foamy bubbles. Also, I wanted a different transition between the eyelet and cable patterns to give it a more fluid feel.

Changing the lace/eyelet pattern was a bigger challenge because I had to find a repeat that worked within the allowable stitch count (not easy) but also one that evoked foamy bubbles.  I had to try several different YO/decrease arrangements before finding one that gave me the look and feel I wanted and that worked with the stitch count.  I’m pleased to show off the result:

I’m currently working on a larger size to add to the pattern, so the pattern isn't ready yet.  I’d also like to have it properly test-knitted before publishing.  I’ll post it here when it’s available.

This isn’t the only knitting I’ve been doing since my last post.  I’ve sort of lost the will to keep updating the blog and am seriously considering ending it. I've also had difficulty taking decent pictures of any of my projects due to the endless string of grey/overcast/rainy/ spring days that we have been suffering.  For now, future posts will be a series of project updates from Flickr with brief project description.   If/when my blogging mojo returns, I’ll try to get back to more detailed posts.  In the meantime….

Happy Knitting,

Nana

Sox-a-lot

What do we have here?

Three bags full of sock projects in varying stages:

Project 1 (far right) is the Vegetable thin socks that I started at the end of February, just a basic top-down, 2 row striped sock made possible by the lovely colors of Noro Kuryeon Sock yarn.  These are my lug around and car knitting socks.

Project 2 (bottom left) is the March Mystery Mock from the Sock Knitter’s Anonymous group on Ravelry.  This is my first “mystery” project.  I got clue one on March 1^st and whipped it right out.  So far so fun; if sock project #3 wasn’t being such a big PITA, I would probably start the second sock from the other end of the ball, because I’m feeling sort of like a slacker with so many other people posting two sock cuffs already.

Project 3 (top left) is my Personal Sock Club selection for March.  This started out as Cirque.  Right away I started to worry that they were knitting up a little on the big side.  But I tried to give it a chance after all cables pull in right?  Well 3/4s of the way into the cable design, the yarn is very stretchy and they are definitely biggish for me.  I decided to try a different pattern rather than opt for smaller (read size 0) needles.  I poked around in my pattern book but really didn’t come up with something simple enough not to get lost in the yarn colors.  (This yarn is VERY busy).  So I dug up a pattern I need to chart and decided to give it a test knit with this yarn, ha! Not so good.) That got ripped and restarted twice because I am not really happy with a couple elements in the pattern and again, the yarn is overwhelming the detail in the pattern.  Right now I have actually come back to Cirque on the size 0 needles for lack of a better idea.  (Next up is probably plain vanilla socks, but I’d like to do something interesting here.)

The shawl and the sweater are holding their own against all of these socks, but will have to wait their turn for a blog post.  We’ll see what the weekend knitting yields.

 Happy Knitting,

Nana

Miles and Miles

One nice thing about taking short trips is that when we drive someplace, Hubby prefers to do most of the driving… that means lots of knitting time for me.  You might have figured that out from the previous post.  We’re back home now and I am happy to tell you that although I was practically holding my breath on the last repeat before the start of the toe, the main color yarn held out.  I only had approximately 9 yards left over. Whew!  The socks came out nicely.  The pictures not so much, but you can tell that they turned out pretty nice even if you can’t see a great amount of detail.

Finished!

The remainder

 Pattern: Guitar Man Socks by Rebecca Mercier

Yarn: Creatively Dyed Steele in Kinofuji and Art Yarns Ultramerino in color 124

Size 0 needles magic loop

The socks are unblocked in these photos because these socks are too big for my blockers. I’m not sure how I’ll get them blocked nicely (since they are a gift).  I’ll figure something out.  I really like this pattern and plan to tinker with an adaptation for a smaller foot at some point.  I’ll let you know if/when I figure it out.

In other knitting I am coming along nicely on the Watershed Vest 

 Watershed in the sun

with a little help from my 'assistant'

and the shawl is progressing… 

only 16 more rounds (or 9216 stitches) to go until the next increase row and bind off. 

It kinda feels like I’ve been knitting for miles on that thing.  

And speaking of miles…. a friend recently posted on Facebook that she was trying to knit from stash due to the size of hers.  She went so far as to figure out how much yarn she had in yards, miles etc.  I was intrigued.  So much so, that I (of course) had to go figure out what I have on hand.  I too have been making an effort to knit mainly from stash.  Especially so since we moved and I realized how much yarn I really have.  I now know that I have 85,288.7 yards of yarn including 37,074.1 yards of fingering.  That adds up to about 48 miles (21 miles of sock yarn) give or take a few yards; or roughly 86 pairs of socks and many other projects with the other weights. 

I could knit for miles and miles….

Happy Knitting!

 Nana

My Li’l Pink Socks

I think I’ve mentioned in this space before that I’m a big fan of the comic strip “Mutts.” So upon finishing my latest pair of socks, I had a bit of fun. Saucey and I decided that a tribute to Mooch and his “passion” was in order.
Here are the results:

" What? You Never had a crush before??"

And here are the finished socks.

Pattern:  Lovely Lace Socks by Karen Baumer (IK Spring 2006)Yarn: Crystal Palace Panda Cotton in color 205 Pink
Size 2.25 needles Magic Loop


Happy Knitting!


Nana

On and Off the Needles

When I was younger and had my whole summer to look forward to during the last week of school, the idea of no schedule and endless possibilities was very delicious.

As an adult it is a little scary. I made it through my first week of “unemployment” feeling just a little bit un-tethered.

The whole concept of just getting up and doing whatever with nowhere to go and nothing special to accomplish is just a little daunting. Fortunately I had a couple of private lessons and have plenty of knitting goals to keep me going.

I finished a couple of things and started a couple of new projects just to keep myself occupied.

Here’s what I’ve finished:

2 pair of socks, a shawl, and a couple of dishcloths for gifts:

Sock pair #1














Pattern: basic sock
Yarn: Panda Cotton baby blues; deep blue and Ivory
Size 2.5 dpn

Just a quick pair of crew socks that I cast on for traveling over Memorial Day weekend, I had a lot of yarn leftover from two pair I did before so I thought I’d see if I could get another pair out of it. I managed to have just enough of the light blue and the white. I have enough of the dark blue left to use as striping or heels and toes in another pair. I did pick up a few skeins of this yarn during the going-out-of-business sales at the shop. One interesting note about this pair; since I made the entire cuff in ribbing I tried the technique for making neater stripes by doing the first round of each new color in stockinette before switching back to the ribbing. I think it does make a nice looking stripe.

Sock pair #2

Pattern: Annetrelac (IK Holiday Knits 2007)
Yarn: Knitivity in Chocolate covered cherries
Size 2.25 magic loop

I am extremely happy with how these turned out. I had tried a couple of different patterns for this yarn and didn’t love the pooling effect with this limited palette. When I got to the feet and the yarn started a nice thin spiral of reds and browns, I knew I made a good choice. When the second sock turned out to be nearly identical I was just ecstatic.

Simple shawl

Pattern: improvised
Yarn: Brooks Farm Harmony
Size 10.5 needles

I have had this yarn for quite a while and never really came up with a good project for it. I knew I had less than 500 yards which wasn’t enough to really do much. It is silk, wool, and mohair blend, so I didn’t think it would be very good for a hat / mitten set. It was way too pretty to give away (not to mention probably expensive too). I bought it in 2005 at my very first Stitches Midwest and so I had a sort of sentimental attachment to it as well. I finally decided I could probably get a nice wrap or shawl out of it. I tried one wrap pattern, but didn’t like the way the lace looked. So I decided to work up a triangle shawl and experiment a little with patterns. I tried a couple different lace designs, but couldn’t get my mind around how to work in the increases without messing up the pattern. (I’ll get there one of these days). So I just alternated garter bands with two different eyelet sequences. The result is simple and completely plays up how pretty this yarn really is. The finished shawl is about 68 inches wide by 33 inches deep.

I also worked up a couple of washcloths:

I discovered during my last workshop at the store that a dishcloth is a great way to work up a pattern stitch for demonstrating so I've been using these for swatching and my samples for teaching. Plus I have a surprising amount of heavy cotton in my stash. Win, win.

It’s hard to believe this, but I really only have two WIPs right now:

Flower Child by Nora Gaughn

This is a long in the queue project that was delayed due to trouble acquiring the right yarn. I won’t go into the hairy details, but suffice it to say that I am happy to finally get going on this! This is going to be for my DD2 who will be visiting in July so I have a deadline.

I’m using Berroco Pure Pima in the Nectar colorway and size 6 needles. Hopefully this will be a quick knit.

I know you’d be really disappointed if I didn’t have more socks going, so I won’t disappoint. I started my June challenge pair and my am trying to pick a pattern for my June personal sock club pair. The June challenge pair is the Chevron Lace pattern from Getting started Knitting Socks. I’m using Claudia Handpaint in the Ocean Depths colorway. I’ve already had to frog these once because the pattern makes a very tight fabric. I cast on and started over with more stitches, but may need to use bigger needles as well. I think it’s a nice pattern though. I have a picture, but it's more needles than sock at this point.  I'll try to have more done for the next update.

I picked a nice skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock from my personal sock club, but I didn’t like the pattern I had previously paired with it. I’m considering a couple of others I have in my queue right now. I think I just need to start one and see how the yarn knits up. I did a little searching in Ravelry to see what patterns others had used and there are so many!  I guess you’ll have to wait for an update to see what I choose.

And of course, I’ve got about 4 other projects on my “on deck” circle.  I want to try to focus on Flower Child for the moment.  The socks are for when I need a change from the cotton and for carrying around with me. That's what I've got going.  Don't forget Saturday is WWKIP day (or the kick-off for WWKIP Week!) So be sure to do some knitting out and about. 

Happy Knitting!

Nana

Dun, Dun

Like so much else lately, the announcement that the long running series Law and Order was being cancelled was quite abrupt.  Considering last night’s series finale; the familiar sound of Law & Order makes a good theme for this post.

This is my last week of working at the shop.  Right now it sort of feels like I’m a kid getting ready to start summer vacation, but I have to keep reminding myself that my job is done (Done!).  I will really miss everyone that I met and helped with their knitting along the way.  I had such fun working in the shop, learning about yarns, fibers and such, and especially teaching.  I will continue doing private lessons on a limited basis.  That’s a little scary and I’m not quite organized about it yet, but I’ll get there. 

I also have some FO’s. 

Remember the Skew socks, they are done…

Pattern: Skew, Knitty Winter 2009, (Lana Holden)

Yarn: Down Home sock by Knitivity; Aint Gail colorway

Size 1 needles / /Magic Loop

A very strange concept in sock knitting and they actually don’t fit badly, but they are really some weird looking socks.

Also, the Blue on Blue socks are done…

Pattern: My basic sock recipe

Yarn: Claudia Handpainted in Deep Blue and Antique Jeans colorways

Size 1 dpn

I started knitting these for the sock class I taught in April (not realizing it would be my last) I’ve been using them for my back-up on the go knitting and finished these Monday morning. 

Also, I have been sort of between projects and was in a real funk last week so I needed a quick and fun project… this little guy filled the bill.  I give you Claude the Crab.

So if you are ever in a giant funk and need a little knitting pick-me-up; I give the pattern two claws up. 

Pattern: Most Dangerous Crab, Knitty Summer 2009 (Amber Allison)

Yarn: Patons Classic in Bright red and Aran

Size 7 dpn

I’ve got a couple of other things on the needles and one project I’m getting ready to swatch that will make someone very happy.

That’s it for me today, I guess you could say that I’m done… done.

Happy Knitting!

 

Nana