Socks! Socks! Socks!

I’ve been a sock knitting mood while we’ve been spending more time at home in light of the Corona Virus Pandemic.  I found a great pattern on Ravelry called “Instant Gratification Socks”.  For these socks, you hold two strands of sock weight yarn together while you knit so the socks go really fast. The pattern suggests using US Size 2.5 needles which seemed really small.  I bumped it up to US Size 3 needles and I like the fit of my socks.  The pattern called for a traditional heel with a heel flap, heel turn and gusset decreases, but I opted for a Fish Lips Kiss (FLK heel) that I love.

The purple yarn I used is Knit Picks Stroll in the “Majestic” color way.  The self-striping yarn is Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett; I am not certain of the color way. I love how the two yarns knit up together.  

Below you will see some socks I have decided to frog. The yarn is Opal.  The pattern is called “Katniss”.  The socks are way too snug. I had both socks done from the cuff to the heel (I did a FLK heel) and, when I finally tried them on, I could see they were too small.  I will reknit this yarn with a strand of natural color (white/cream colored yarn) and I plan to use the “Instant Gratification Sock” pattern again.  That will be fun.  

I tried out this yarn last weekend in a really fun pattern called “Mystic Spiral Sock”.  Great pattern! But I just was not liking this yarn in this particular sock construction.  I’ll come back to the Mystic Spiral pattern again sometime in the future when I find a better suited yarn.

Below you’ll see some tube socks I am working on for my husband.  This yarn is really old and I cast on this project over a year ago.  I think I get kind of bored when I am knitting the tube socks.  I’ll get them done eventually.

Here’s another completed pair.  My local yarn shop (Yarned & Dangerous, Canon City, Colorado), is now carrying some great Regia 8-ply sock yarn.  This yarn is worsted weight so these US Size 14 men’s socks for my husband were done in just a few days!  Amazing.  I used US Size 3 needles for the cuff and US Size 4 needles for the remainder of the sock.  As you can see, the dogs were my photo assistants when I was taking pictures of these completed socks.  The pattern I used for these socks is called “Rye”.  I found it on Ravelry; it’s a design from “Tin Can Knits”.  I think the Rye sock pattern called for a traditional heel with heel flap, heel turn, and gusset decreases.  I opted to use a FLK heel in these socks as well.  

It feels good to be finishing up projects.  I am grateful for my creative hobbies during this time of so much uncertainty.  I spent some time tidying up my really messy craft room the other day. I came across a number of items I think I will work on soon.  I’ll continue to share things with you as I complete them.  

Stay safe and healthy.  Best wishes to you, your family and friends.  

Socks of Kindness

Socks of Kindness 

Yes... that’s a dog under the sock because Sandy is always on my lap.  

Brutus is in the photo too in the top left corner.  This corner of the couch is crowded but cozy.

My friend, Belinda, discovered this sock pattern called “Socks of Kindness” and I really liked the looks of it. I had cast on this yarn and I was knitting a plain old vanilla sock when I learned of the pattern. I ripped back to the cuff and switched to the Socks of Kindness design.  The only special stitches are “knit 2 together” and “slip slip knit”.  Of course there are “yarnovers” as well.  I opted to use a “Fish Lips Kiss” heel in my socks.  The Socks of Kindness pattern calls for toe decrease which are more like decreases at the top of a hat.  I did follow that part of the pattern as well.  This was a really fun knit.

The yarn I used in these socks is rather colorful.  True story: I am not sure where this yarn came from.  It’s either from my Mom’s stash (Thanks, Mom!) or it’s something I got on sale (the price was marked down to $4.00!)  The yarn is Zitron Trekking XXL which I have used a number times in the past.  

Here is the link to the Socks of Kindness pattern. Currently, it is a FREE pattern on Ravelry:

Link for Socks of Kindness Pattern:  Click HERE

Walking Uphill... for Chocolate

Walking Uphill... for Chocolate

Not too long ago, I started to follow a lady on Instagram.  Her name is “Kaythearkydesigns”.  Here is her Ravelry profile as well (Click HERE).  I noticed a shawl she had completed called “Bojagi”.  I liked it so much, I knit the design myself.  Since I noticed her Instagram name included the word “design,” it made me wonder if she had some knitting patterns available.  Sure enough she does so I decided to buy some of her patterns and knit them up.  

This is her pattern called “Walking Uphill”.  Since my yarn reminds me so much of chocolate, I decided to call my project “Walking Uphill... for Chocolate”.  Ha, ha!  

This was a really nice knit.  It’s garter stitch and a little eyelet and involves short rows and wrapping and turning of stitches.  I used yarn from my Mom’s stash. Thanks Mom!  The yarn is called Araucania Huasco Semi-Solid.  You can see the yarn above.  The yarn had just enough color variation in it to show of this pattern’s unique design.  This shawl is knit from the bottom up. It starts with a wedge which leans one direction and then the next wedge leans the opposite direction.  Each wedge grows significantly as you work your way through the pattern. This is a great knit for TV watching. We’ve had a very snow February here in Southern Colorado and my husband has been recovering from a hamstring/knee injury. We have been watching way too much Netflix.  I watched a lot of the show “MADMEN” while knitting this shawl.

Lately I feel as if I have been completing a lot of projects. It’s amazing what happens when you just pick a pattern/project and only work on one project at a time (as opposed to randomly casting on a gazillion projects and haphazardly abandoning things before completion).  Finishing things feels good!

Here is a link to the “Walking Uphill” pattern from KAYTHEARKYDESIGNS (Weird name right, turns out Kay is a retired archaeologist who lives in New Mexico... I encourage you to check out her cool designs on Ravelry).

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/walking-uphill

A nice generous sized shawl.

Ahh, here you can see those right and left leaning wedges and you can see how they wedges grow larger and larger from bottom to top.

Not the best photos.  Hard to photograph this shawl.

Knitting with two dogs. Sandy at the bottom of the photo (head under shawl) and Brutus at my feet toward the top of the photo.  This is how we watch TV at our house. I don’t need a blanket.

I’ve had this cool shawl pin in my craft room for years. It was a free prize included in a knitting magazine I purchased at Barnes and Nobel years ago.  There are some cool knitting magazines on the shelves at Barnes and Nobel and they are wrapped in clear plastic and often include a fun knitting related item or pattern booklet.  I think these magazines are from England.

Carousel Socks

Carousel Socks

Pattern link is here:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hipsulaisen-karuselli

What an unusual sock pattern!  A few gals at my local knit shop were knitting these Carousel Socks (Pattern name on Ravelry: Hipsulaisen Karuselli) so I decided to join them.  I used some scrap sock yarn which was all yarn from my Mom’s stash of yarn. Thanks Mom!

The colorful yarn is Red Heart brand “Heart and Sole with Aloe” (colorway: Congo) and the solid navy blue yarn is Knit Picks “Stroll”.

The sock is knit from the center of the heel out and you begin with six stitches.  From there, you knit a relatively flat hexagon by adding stitches every other round. See below:

Then you fold the hexagon up on itself and sew a seam.  You are sewing together two sides of the hexagon. 

Two of the remaining sides of the hexagon become the cuff and the opposite remaining sides of the hexagon become the toe.  

My socks are just a tad bit baggy in the heel area.  When I knit my hexagon, I kept knitting until each of the hexagon’s six sections had 32 stitches. Perhaps if I knit this pattern again, I’ll knit until there are just 30 stitches in each hexagon section for a slightly snugger fit.  I think I will likely make these odd socks again. They were fun and actually went quite quickly.  

Here are a few photos to show you how unique these socks are.  They do not look much like socks and they look as if they should not fit a human foot, but they fit pretty well as you can see.

Bojagi

Bojagi 

I have had this really nice yarn from “Ewetopia” in my stash for quite some time. The colors are called “Citron” and “Aster Blooms”. I purchased the yarn to make a pattern called “Spectra” but fell out of love with that idea. Truth be told, this yarn would look very nice in the Spectra pattern.

Then I found a pattern called “Goldfish Memory” and I started that pattern using this yarn along with some speckled hand dyed yarn.  It looked terrible together.  So I frogged it. The yarn lingered in my stash.

A few weeks back, I was looking on Instagram and I saw a shawl knit up in a pattern called “Bojagi”.  The lady who posted the shawl goes by “KAYTHEARKY”.  

Long story short, I went and grabbed this yarn, cast on the “Bojagi” pattern, and then just knit, knit, knitted merrily along until this project was done.  It was such a perfect and fun knit.  You start off with a little garter stitch, stitch some mosaic stitch, make some beautiful lace, switch back to mosaic stitch, and then race to the finish in garter stitch. It is very unusual for me to work on just one project from start to finish and complete a pattern like this in 12 days, but that’s just what I did because the pattern was so fun.              

It was kind of hard to photograph this project. I think the photos do not do it justice.  It’s really pretty and the yarn is dreamy, squishy soft.  If you’d like to knit this design, I’ve shared the FREE pattern link below.  And I can highly recommend yarn from “Ewetopia”.  I got the yarn at the Interweave Yarnfest in Loveland, Colorado, a few years back.

Here is the pattern link:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/bojagi-shawl

Copilot Cowl

Copilot Cowl

Copilot is a free pattern on Ravelry.  I decided it was a good choice for some yarn I dyed with Easter Egg Dye a few months ago.  I had some crazy bright orange yarn that I got at a knitting retreat.  At the retreat, I saw that the orange yarn could be a great rust color if over-dyed with blue dye.  I dyed the orange yarn with the blue Easter Egg Dye when I got home. It turned out great.  After dyeing the orange yarn, I noticed there was still a lot of dye in my pot.  I remembered I had some dye-able sock weight yarn in my craft room. I added it to the pot and that is the yarn I used in this project.  

Below you’ll see some random photos of my yarn dyeing session.  I can’t tell you exactly what I did but you can find lots of videos on YouTube which demonstrate how to dye yarn with Easter Egg Dye.

In the photo below, you can see all the yarn I dyed. The rust colored yarn was a bright poppy orange color before dyeing in a blue pot of dye.

Below you can see I had the dye-able wool in the pot (half way in and half way out).  

Above you can see that the entire hank of yarn eventually ended up in the pot (sorry the photos are out of order).  I took some of the Easter Egg Dye pellets and nestled them into the yarn in the pot of water on the stove top.  It was all very random and experimental.  Fun!

Copilot is a great knit for travel or watching TV.  

The cowl is very long and I like wearing it doubled up around my neck. I like wearing cowls since I don’t have to worry about them falling off when wearing them like I do with triangular shaped scarves/shawls.  

Here is the link for the Copilot pattern:  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/copilot

Charmayne

Charmayne

Charmayne, as you can see, is a heavily beaded shawl.  The free pattern comes from “Knitty” and you can find it HERE:  http://knitty.com/ISSUEss18/PATTcharmayne/PATTcharmayne.php

The pattern instructions specify you can make a small or a larger version of the shawl; I made the small version based upon the amount of yarn I had.  My skein of yarn was 100 grams; I had 15 grams remaining after finishing the shawl.  The yarn I used is hand dyed and comes from Andromeda Sock Yarn.  The yarn’s maker is from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and she sells yarn on line and also at my LYS (Yarned & Dangerous, Canon City, Colorado).  The yarn’s color way is “Take a Hike”.

Some completed projects are easier to photograph than others.  I feel as if this was a challenging project to capture in photos.  I am including a bunch of photos so you can see the shawl from a variety of angles.  

If you are interested to know, I think I used about 50 grams of beads in this project.  The beads are Unions 6/0 Miyuki beads and the color is Metallic Mix (01610).  When I started the project, I only had one tube of beads (20 grams).  As I was knitting along, it occurred to me that I did not have nearly enough beads.  After searching for a good long while, I found two more tubes of the same beads on eBay.  Phew... what a relief!

This was a super fun knit. The shawl starts with just a few stitches and grows from there.  As you knit along and the project grows wider and wider, you are pretty much just working in stockinette and then you pay close attention to one edge of the project where the lace and beads are being worked.  At the very end, when the project is quite wide, you complete the final lace border which contains gobs of beads.  I have to admit I was dreading the lace border. I was worried it would be fussy and slow and too labor intensive.  As it turns out, the lace border was not that slow and it was fun.  This is such an enjoyable knit that I can see myself making another Charmayne shawl.