Three Pairs of Socks

I finished these socks during the World Series. I am trying to find more patterns for thicker socks and I'm hoping to make more of the lovely free Drops patterns 

The first pair are 116-42 Socks with a Pattern in Karisma and some Elann Highland Peruvian sport weight. I did an afterthought heel and added some corrugated ribbing.

The second pair are 0-566 Socks with Christmas Pattern. The original pattern used just the red and white colors and I wish I hadn't added the green. Oh well. I did my usual heel and an abbreviated toe.

For these socks I was trying to see if I could get away with just two balls of Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool (worsted) for some hiking socks for DH. Apparently not as he said he prefers 10 inches of ribbing. Also, looking at this photo I realized I need to make the heel flap longer for his socks next time. I used size 4 dpns and 48 sts and went from there.

How about a Little Knitting: Sashiko Mittens

I am an eclectic crafter. I love knitting but also so many other crafts. I love crochet. I love spinning, I love needlepoint and I love embroidery. I am particularly fond of Sashiko Embroidery. I have delighted in the embroidery of the organic, peaceful geometric shapes with oatmeal thread on indigo grounds.

I was so inspired by Sashiko, that I wanted to translate and reinterpret it into knitting. With winter coming, Sashiko mittens seemed like the perfect choice.

I chose 2 worsted weight yarns from my stash. One with a lovely indigo tone, the other a soft oatmeal.

I first knit a little swatch to decide on tension and fairisle pattern. I wanted the oatmeal design to be present but not crowd the mitten. This was my first sample, interlocking circular shapes on size 5 needles.

I loved the contrast of the colors, but decided the gauge should be tighter. The circular shapes appealed to me, but the interlocking made the pattern overwhelming. I switched to size 3, and after drafting a simplified pattern evocative of honeycombs, I started on the mittens.

I am really excited about these Sashiko mittens. These test ones will be for me. I am writing the pattern and will be offering it as a pdf as soon as the pattern is written, tested and edited. I should leave you now, and go work on them...

Hello World!

Hi everyone! I am so happy to be back. I want to thank all of you for your well wishes for Little Miss SockPixie. These last few weeks have been difficult for her and of course for the whole family. I think we are finally on the right track.

I thought it would only be appropriate to start my first post in more than a month with Little Miss SockPixie.

A few weeks ago, we gave her a vintage SmithCorona typewriter as a gift. She had been dreaming of owning one for a long time. We told her a computer was in many ways more practical to use for writing but I guess she had already imagined herself writing novels on a typewriter like the great writers of the past, like the heroes of her favorite movies, like Hubbel Gardner in the Way we Were!(Odd movie I know for a nine year old!)

Little Miss SockPixie, her typewriter and her stories have been inseparable ever since. I could not resist taking pictures of her today. It was so wonderful  to see her expressions as she wrote. I had to capture them.

Pensive at times...

Looking for inspiration or for that perfect word ...

Bursting with frustration with every typo...

Furiously typing away...

And most of all enjoying every minute of it...

Thanks Little Miss SockPixie. You and your stories made my day!

Lots of New Project Ideas

I apologize for not promptly answering some questions in the comments but I've been battling the flu. Snoopy asked about the perfect first project for colorwork and I suggested a hat knit in the round. Here is a thread on Ravelry's Stranded forum with some pattern suggestions.

Good Pattern for a Beginner?

Also, my free pattern for the Ankara Headband is a good choice for your first project and it only takes a few hours to knit.

Needledancer asked about sport weight cotton/wool yarn blends that come in a lot of colors to knit a lighter weight Dale Norwegian sweater. I don't know of any - if any of you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments. If I've forgotten any questions, please ask me again. Thanks!

Here is the new yarn. I'm very fond of the Valley Yarn Northampton worsted wool from Webs. It really is soft and lovely and will be perfect for thick socks. I'm definitely buying more even if it is no longer at the sale price.

 

The Cascade 220 sport is the usual beautiful rich saturated colors but is much more textured than the worsted Cascade 220. I'm not sure if I will like it for colorwork or not. I'll try using it for something soon and see what I think.

 

Because I already have quite enough yarn (and boy do I ever!!!) to make myself feel less quilty I chose a specific project for the new yarns I purchased.

The red Northampton yarn is for Susan Pierce Lawrence's Quickie Socks from the Joy of Sox.

The periwinkle Northampton is for the Cyber Flirt cabled socks from the Joy of Sox.

The heathered green Northampton is for some really long ribbed socks for DH (he usually insists on at least 10" of straight K2P2 rib... sigh)

The Cascade 220 sport is for the Convertible A Go-Go socks in Think Outside the Sox. I can't decide between making them in the green (the cables will be much more noticeable) or the purple (more my style). I think I'll add the buttons if I can find any the right size. Whatever is leftover I'll use for colorwork.

I have three FOs to show you as soon as I can get them photographed and also a review of a brand new book on color knitting.

Stash Enhancement Alert

I am always searching for wool yarns in the DK and sport weight so I can knit my Dale of Norway patterns. By the way, I finally managed to catalog all of my 31 Dale pattern booklets in my Ravelry library HERE along with some others.

I like Heilo but I want brighter colors and I admit I wouldn't mind a lower price. I bought enough of the now-discontinued Elann Highland sport weight to make the Dale Whistler sweater but my row gauge was off significantly. Most of the Dale colorwork patterns are in DK weight but previous to the Highland Sport disaster I've had success making lighter weight sweaters using Nature Spun sport weight (which is becoming harder to find).

Here are some old photos of the Bullwinkle sweater (aka Dale #10006) I made years ago in Nature Spun sport weight. It was such a lucky accident because I actually had enough random yarn in my stash to make an entire colorwork sweater. (Also probably a sign my stash was too big!!)


I was just looking at Webs and they are now offering a Cascade 220 sport weight in about 30 lovely colors. The price is $3.75 per 164 yd. skein and the yarn is discountable. I'm going to get a few skeins to sample. Also, they do currently have a sale on their Valley Northampton 100% wool worsted weight for $3.69 for a large 247 yd. skein and they offer over 40 colors. It is on sale so it isn't discountable but I'm buying a few of the heathers to see what I think. I want to knit more thick worsted weight socks for padding around the house so this might just be the ticket.

Carlisle Hat & Cowl

First off, you have to go see this knitted skeleton! It is just amazing! The teeth!!

Here's the hat and cowl pattern I mentioned previously. The Carlisle Hat pattern is available HERE at Knit Picks and is knit in 4 colors of Wool of the Andes. There's no shaping so it can also be made as a cowl as seen below.

To make it into a hat, just sew together the top edges and attach each corner together as seen below.

I hope to have some completed socks to show you soon!

Colorwork Book Review: Around the World in Knitted Socks

Around the World in Knitted Socks by German knitwear designer Stephanie Van Der Linden isn't exclusively colorwork but the book has enough colorwork designs (16 out of 26 total patterns ) that it is still worth buying just for the stranded patterns. And the non-stranded designs are beautiful as well.

This book has actually been out a while but silly me pre-ordered it from Amazon which took longer than just ordering it the minute it was available. The book includes sock designs from the usual places like Norway and Scotland famous for their knitting designs but also more unusual places like Italy and Switzerland. I think Stephanie has a distinctive design style though and it shows through even in her more traditional designs.

The patterns in the book include several different heels and some fun techniques like argyle socks done in short rows instead of intarsia, travelling stitches, embroidery, sideways construction, braids and beading. I think most of the socks are knit cuff down. In the end of the book she briefly discusses two color knitting and even has a photo that shows what too short floats will look like while knitting. Really though the book is all about the designs and you should buy it if like me you love the designs - you can go HERE to see all the socks in the book.

If I had a quibble I'd say I wish there were some socks knit in a thicker weight than fingering weight but that is just me. I prefer thicker socks when padding around this house with the cold  brick floors. Still I adore this book and am absolutely thrilled to see a new book out that is full of great stranded designs. I think I'm going to start with her Colors of the Andes socks.

ETA: Oops - it looks like at least one of the sock patterns is knit toe up (the first socks in this blog post) so I'll change it to most of the socks are knit cuff down.