Colorful Socks, Staid Socks, and Future Socks

These socks are gorgeous, for sure.

The Zauberball yarn is single ply unevenly spun - like a fingering weight Lopi. The feel of it is like a rough fuzzy wool, not the smooth, soft sock yarn I love to knit.

Because the yarn has no twist, I predict a short life for these socks but they will be bright and cheerful while they last. I had fun knitting them.

Pattern: Basic cuff down sock pattern on 64 stitches. k3p1 ribbing on cuff and instep.

Yarn: Zauberball.

Color: 1155.

Needles: Options #1, 2.5mm

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch


Once a year I knit Vegan acceptable socks for sister Carrie's birthday.

This year she got a a black pair of Panda Soy and this pair of dark blue Panda Cotton.

Both of the Panda yarns are nubbly and neither has decent enough stitch definition to support a stitch pattern. I find the Panda Cotton a little more pleasant to knit then the Panda Soy. Both are splitty. Panda Cotton splits easier than Panda Soy.

Pattern: Basic cuff down sock pattern on 56 stitches. k3p1 ribbing on cuff and instep.

Yarn: Panda Cotton. 55% bamboo + 24% Cotton + 21% elastic nylon.

Color: Delft blue.

Needles: Options #1, 2.5mm

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch


Today, just in time to start the next set of birthday socks, there was a box from Knitpicks in the mailbox.

Daughter Heather, May birthday, asked for gray and/or black socks. Mom, June birthday, asked for green.

From left to right: Ash Stroll, Peapod Stroll, Black Stroll. The skein in front is Springtime Tonal Stroll. Much brighter than the picture.

My Yarn Talks to Me - Part 2

Part 1 is here.


When I saw this pattern on the back of my new Patternworks catalog I fell in love with it and decided I had to buy it. When I went to buy it, I discovered it was designed by Kathy Zimmerman, one of my favorite knitware designers. Many of her creations reach out and call to me to be admired if not always knit.


The pattern was written for a Classic Elite cotton/silk blend which sounded like a painful knit for my hands, so I swatched it in Knitpicks Gloss DK, 70% Merino wool 30% silk.

The color is called Woodland Sage, but it looks like teal to me.


Perfect!

This washed swatch is exact stitch gauge and row gauge. The lace definition is excellent. I think I'm going to like this yarn.


Still, in my mental list of projects the Oversize Lace Top by Deborah Newton, published in Spring/Summer 2007 Vogue Knitting, is still next in the queue. But that's OK. It's lace. I has the same gauge as Brandywine, so what better project to try out some Gloss DK?

Today fourteen skeins of Gloss DK arrived in a pretty silver gray color. When I ordered it, I was thinking Oversize Lace Top. Now that I have it, I realize I could use it for either one, the Oversize Lace Top or Brandywine. A decision is pending. At least one other project must be finished before I cast on, so there's time to think about it.

Here We Go Again

It's a new Cookie A. sock pattern book and a new selection of sock patterns I just have to knit. Practical or not (mostly not) they're challenging, they're fun to knit, and they're a treat for the eyes.


Yesterday my Knitpicks order arrived and I've been drooling over Knit.Sock.Love ever since.

Why pay shipping when you can buy a little more and get free shipping? So I filled out my needle collection a bit and bought an interesting looking skein of Stroll handpainted sock yarn.


The color name is Kindling Tonal, a beautiful mix of warm browns.


Knit.Sock.Love is artistically photographed with multiple pictures per pattern. Each pattern has one picture that's nothing but the sock, large enough so all the detail can be seen. I really appreciate that.

The pattern above is Pointelle. It's going to be my first sock knit from the book in some lovely Old Rose Slackford Studio Stalwart Sock yarn.

But first I have some Idaho knitting to do. More about that next time I post.

Clifford Red

A while ago I bought two skeins of Knitpicks Andean Treasure, 100% baby alpaca, in Hot Rod Heather. It was on closeout sale and I though if I liked the color I would buy enough for a sweater.

Just looking at my skeins, I wasn't impressed with the color, didn't order any more, and now it's a discontinued color.


Then I did some swatching with it, shown above, and fell in love with the color.

So . . . Does anyone have 15 or more skeins of Andean Treasure Hot Rod Heather they'd like to sell? Please email me.


Last week I was wearing the red hat (above) and my red Land's End Squall Jacket at the grocery store when a little boy about two years old pulled on my arm and said, "mumble, bumble, ump, dog."

I greeted him and asked him to repeat what he said so I might understand. He repeated, "mumble, bumble, ump, dog."

Then his mother appeared and translated, "You look like Clifford the dog."

Now I can't wear my red coat without thinking I look like Clifford. But, that's OK. It's a pleasant thought.


One of my yarn Christmas/birthday gifts from Idaho was more red yarn. This is On-line Cosmo, 75% Merino, 5% cashmere, and 25% nylon.

I'm thinking maybe a pair of Cookie A. socks from Knit.Sock.Love which should be arriving any day now. Or maybe a scarf to complete my Clifford look.

BFF Revisited and New Sock Yarn

These socks deserved better than yesterdays inadequate picture taken with the flash. The picture above was taken in daylight and shows the true richness of the yarn color. It's still difficult to see the cables because of the dark color.



This close up picture was lightened so you can see the beautiful way Cookie A. transitions between the cuff ribbing and stitch pattern. A k2 in the ribbing is crossed and double knit to create four stitches for the start of the cable.

The decrease back to two stitches where the cable ends is just as ingenious, but I'm not there yet.

Pattern:BFF by Cookie A. 64 stitch size.

Yarn: Stalwart Sock from Slackford Studio. 75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon 4 Ply Fingering Weight Sock Yarn.

Color: After Midnight.

Needles: Options 2.50mm circulars.

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch in stockinette.



I bought two skeins of the After Midnight thinking I'd use it for Brother Dave's socks. Then he called a few nights ago and asked for multicolored socks with "violet". That meant I had to buy more sock yarn. Darn.

This is Opal Rainforest 6, Color 4005, Baronesse Bambalina.



Someone always asks where I buy Opal. Simply Socks Yarn Company

Knitpicks Box Arrived

Yesterday a box arrived from Knitpicks full of woolly goodness and temptations to cast on a new project.


There's enough Andean Treasure Baby Alpaca for a sweater which I will not start until I've finished the three sweaters I have in time out. I will not, I will not!

Didn't I say I was going to bring those sweaters out this week and declare their fate? It's Friday. Only one more day in the week to do it. I'm sure once the job gets done I'll wonder why it took so long to get started.

The new yarn's color is Mystery Heather. Not very exciting but very practical.


Andean Treasure in Hot Red Heather was on sale so I ordered two skeins to see if I loved the color. It's OK, but I'm not in love. The two skeins will become a scarf and Knitpicks can discontinue the color with my blessing.


Mom asked for a hat like My Red Hat. I know she likes her knits washable, so I bought two skeins of Swish Worsted, a superwash wool.


Because wool hat weather is here now in SW Michigan, I knit the hat last night. It's all ready to keep Mom's head warm this winter.

After Midnight Sock Yarn

Three pairs of Chirstmas gift socks need to be knit before Christmas - Brother Dave, Brother Dave's SO Karen, and Doggy School Teacher Gail.


Karen likes dark socks. Her yarn arrived today. Stalwart Sock Yarn from Slackford Studio. The color is After Midnight.


Not sure what stitch pattern I'm going to use. Karen is one of the few people who actually looks at and admires the patterns in the stitches, so I want to pick something interesting for her.

New Yarn

Sprout (not shown here) is finished. It's been so cold I've been wearing wool and haven't had the incentive to wash and block Sprout for pictures. Maybe this evening.



Having Sprout finished opened up the knitting queue for another project, so I ordered the yarn to knit Vines and Leaves (above) from the May issue of Creative Knitting

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Yes, it's more Knitpicks Cotlin.

This color is called Planetarium. It could easily have been called Navy.

I'm in a Cotlin rut. Why change yarns when I like the way Cotlin knits up, wears with little stretching, no pilling, machine washes and dries with no shrinkage, and feels good next to my skin?

Knitpicks labels Cotlin as a DK weight yarn. I've knit my previous two Cotlin sweaters at a sport weight gauge of 6 stitches/inch resulting in the positive yarn attributes listed in the previous paragraph.

Vines and Leaves will be the first time I've knit Cotlin at DK gauge of 5.5 stitches/inch. It will be interesting to see if I still love it at DK gauge.

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Who pays postage at Knitpicks when you can order more stuff and get free shipping? Not me.

It's been several years since I tried their sock yarn and I wasn't impressed with it at that time. These colors combos caught my eye, so I decided to give it another try.

Felici Positively Pink on the left, Felici Rainbow on the right.

New Opal, Panda Cotton, and Panda Soy

I'm still knitting away on John's Birthday Socks. Both socks are past the gusset decreases. Maybe they'll be done by the end of the week.

Next up for socks? More birthday socks.

Dog trainer Gail's birthday is March 18, the same as John. She requested Opal with some gray and/or black, so I ordered the two skeins above from Simply Socks Yarn Company.

Both are from the Rainforest Collection, colorways based on creatures in the rainforest. On the left, Oskar, a black and white butterfly. On the right, Emil, a furry monkey.

I may ask Gail to pick her favorite, or I may knit both skeins for her. The dogs and I have had eight pleasurable years at doggy school and I'm sad to say they're coming to an end soon. Sunny had to stop going because of her back, and Pappy is getting too old.

April is Sister Carrie's birthday. She loves her Panda Cotton socks (59% Bamboo, 25% Cotton, 16% Elastic Nylon) from last year and requested a pair in tan or beige for this year. Bottom left is Trail Mix, the closest color I could find without some other color introduced to make the socks non-neutral. It's a little darker than requested, but I'm hoping she'll like it.

The Panda Soy Hazelnut(49% Bamboo, 33% Soy, 18% Elastic Nylon) on the right is closer to the requested colors. It will be my first time knitting Panda Soy and I'm looking forward to giving it a try and then hearing back from Carrie on how it wears.

With all these neutral colors in the queue, I think I need an interesting colorful project for contrast. Time to haul out that red gansey I started months ago.

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Pointing the camera over to the neighbor's pasture.

Yarn From Idaho

In the Christmas box from Idaho was a bag of yarn for my upcoming birthday with a note that I could open it immediately.

This is the second year the Idaho family has picked out their own birthday sock yarn so I'm ready to knit their birthday socks.

The dark blue is Happy Feet for Son John. He remembered I ran out of yarn for his man size feet last year, so this year he sent three skeins.

The purple On Your Toes is for Sydney. Her birthday isn't until April, a silly time to give wool socks to a rapidly growing child. I plan to knit hers up as soon as John sends me an ankle measurement and shoe size.

The green On Your Toes is for DIL Anne. The cuffs are started and I'm hoping to have them in the mail soon since her birthday is January 10.


The bright and happy red/pink/lime green is for me. Instead of adding it to the stash, I whipped up a pair of simple, practical socks to brighten up the colorless winter days ahead.

Thanks John, Anne, and Sydney.


Pattern: Basic k3p1 ribbing on 56 stitches

Yarn: Happy Feet. 90% superwash Merino, 10% nylon.

Color: 25

Needles: Options 2.50mm circulars.

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch in stockinette.

Blizzard, New Yarn, and Gail's Socks

The weather chatter all agrees this is one of the earliest blizzards in several decades.

Where we live there are bands of Lake Effect Snow along with high winds and regular storm snow. Hard to measure depth because of the drifting. I'm guessing about a foot and it's still coming down in heavy, measurable amounts.

To make things more interesting, the after lunch temperature is 9 F/-13C. The wind chill is -8 F/-22 C. The dogs are not begging to go out. Neither am I.


This came along with the purple yarn shipment from Slackford Studio. The colorway name is Woodland.


I've started the first pair of purple socks and am looking forward to sharing the pretty little stitch pattern I'm using on the cuffs. It's the perfect day for knitting. I'm so happy I don't have to go anywhere today, even if I did miss my much needed haircut appointment.

I'm also happy to have Gail's socks done so I can knit on something more interesting.

Dog trainer Gail's socks, finished in plenty of time for the doggy school party on Sunday.

Hopefully we'll be able to get out of the driveway by then.

Pattern: Basic cuff down sock pattern on 64 stitches. k7p1 ribbing on cuff and instep.

Yarn: Regia.

Color: Kaffe Fassett 4251.

Needles: Options #1, 2.5mm

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch

Knitting Log for November 5

For the past two evenings I've been working a little on all three of my projects. For blogging purposes that's an unsatisfactory way to work. Not enough has been done on any of the three to be blogworthy, so here's an unimpressive update on all three of them.

Kristi
As previously mentioned, this is not a fast knit. I'm still enjoying the process, the pattern, and the yarn.

The cuffs are mirror images of each other. Left foot and right foot are different.

Pattern: Kristi from Sock Innovation by Cookie A.

Yarn: Stalwart Sock from Slackford Studio. 75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon 4 Ply Fingering Weight Sock Yarn.

Color: Wisteria.

Needles: Options 2.50mm circulars.

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch in stockinette.

Red X Sweater
Almost nine inches done. It's time to make some design plans for the top part of the sweater before going on.

The darkish red doesn't show the stitch definition as much as I imagined it would.

Pattern: Winging it for now. Unofficially naming it the Red X Sweater.

Yarn: Knitpicks Cotlin. 70% Tanguis Cotton, 30% Linen. DK weight.

Color: Moroccan Red.

Needles: Options #3.

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch, 8.5 rows/inch in pattern.

Lighthouse Gansey
The knitting has been done for weeks. Every day this week I've picked it up to weave in a few ends. There can't be many more ends to weave in. I have to finish it soon, maybe tonight. There are new projects waiting in the wings.

A few years ago I decided to limit myself to three knitting projects at a time with swatching not counted. At first it was difficult, but I enjoyed the feeling of not being overwhelmed by too many projects in process and persevered.

Now it's a habit and the number three seems to be just right. If I get some new yarn I just have to caston, there's the swatching exemption. With swatching I often learn new things about what the yarn wants to be and, even more important what the yarn doesn't want to be.

This morning after getting a haircut, I stopped in Stitching Memories to pick up some yarn for Christmas knitting.

The dark cake is Cascade Heritage Handpainted Sock Yarn. Much prettier than it looks in the picture with shades of gray, brown, blue, and some purple. I hope to get a better picture once the knitting begins.

Digging Out the Forgotten Project

Lighthouse Gansey was packed away the middle of May, about the time Sunny had a serious back problem and I decided to knit socks for a while. It was getting too warm to wear a heavy sweater and I told myself there was plenty of time to get it done before it cooled off again in the fall.

All summer I was thinking I only had a few inches to go on the last sleeve. Wishful thinking. When I hauled the sweater out Monday night, I was surprised to see it needed an entire second sleeve.

I'd love to wear it to church Sunday, but I have a busy week and a sick dog so it may not happen that quick.


Pattern: Lighthouse Gansey by Anne Bosch with many modifications. My modifications are discussed here.

Yarn: Knitpicks Cotlin. 70% Tanguis Cotton, 30% Linen. DK weight.

Color: Glacier.

Needles: Options #3.

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch, 8.5 rows/inch in pattern.

A green gansey knit in Cotlin with leaf and tree stitch patterns has been incubating in the back of my mind for at least six months.

When I went to order yarn last week, the green Cotlin I wanted was finally in stock. So, what did I do? I ordered Moroccan Red, a deep orangish red that I couldn't resist.

It's likely I'll knit the green tree/leaf gansey someday, but red is next. I have no idea what stitch patterns to use. I'm having fun looking through books getting ideas.

Lots of New Yarn

Slackford Studio Sue introduced Hedonist, a new line of yarn, a few weeks ago. It's 70% Superwash Merino, 20% Nylon, and 10% Cashmere.


The first batch she put on Etsy was mostly bright shades of pink, which don't tempt me. Fortunately, she also had a few other colors, including this Aster.

When Aster arrived, I verified that the yarn was soft and wonderful. I left it out so I could pet it often, but still have no plans for it except to enjoy owning it.

I also planned not to buy any more Hedonist until I had a chance to knit it up OR there was a color I couldn't resist.


The next batch of Hedonist contained the color I could not resist. It's called Cardinal and is so lovely I'm not sure I can ever find a worthy knitting project for it.

It looks exactly like the soft downy feathers of a red cardinal. How does Sue do that?


Stocking up for more Cookie socks, I bought a few more skeins of Stalwart Sock yarn in the colors that were shouting "buy me".

There's a gallery of all the colorways Sue dyes here. Because she's a business of one (with occasional help from her DH) with a real job, only a small subset of colors are available at one time. It's the perfect excuse to buy sock yarn - have to buy it quick when it's available. Really quick, before someone else grabs it out of the shop.


This is Steelyard Blues. Perfect for Cookie socks. I predict it won't be in the stash very long.


Stormy Night is going to be a pair of Clandestine socks, hopefully before the month of October is over.


I won this skein of Stalwart Sock in a Slackford Studio Group Slackford Studio Group, (a Ravelry link) drawing.

It came without a label, but looking at the gallery of colors I'm guessing it's Skydive. Whatever it is, I like it alot. It won't be sitting around in the stash very long, either.


So, with all this fantastic yarn sitting around begging to be cast on, I've started knitting Wanida on some ten year old dark gray Regia that is adequate but unloved. When I get a cuff or two done, I'll report.

Rick, True Blood, and Red Oak

My most recent yarn order from Slackford Studio arrived Thursday. As expected, the 'True Blood" color is perfect for the Rick pattern and I cast on Thursday evening.

After only two pattern repeats, it was time for bed and the future of the Rick socks was doubtful. I felt my yarn overs were uneven (because they are), and I didn't like the way the stitch pattern was developing.

Frogging the sock would ruin my plan to knit every pattern in Cookie's book, so in the light of Friday morning I decided to knit a little more.


The cuff is done, the heel is turned, and the gusset stitches picked up. My attitude has also turned. I like the way this sock is turning out, even if my stitches could be a tad more even.

Those vertical lines between the diagonal traveling stitches are k2tbl p2 ribbing, making the sock nice and snug on my smallish ankles and feet.

Normally, I knit a little on one sock and switch to the second sock so they'll both be done at the same time. With Rick, the socks are mirror images of each other. The stitch pattern for the second (left) sock is totally different from this sock. Being easily confused, I decided to finish the right sock before starting the left.


Pattern: Rick from Sock Innovation by Cookie A.

Yarn: Stalwart Sock from Slackford Studio. 75% Superwash Merino, 25% Nylon 4 Ply Fingering Weight Sock Yarn.

Color: True Blood

Needles: Options 2.5mm circulars.

The other skein of yarn arriving from Slackford Studio Thursday is Red Oak.

I'm loving it because it really does look like red oak wood. It's destined to become a Cookie sock, but hasn't been assigned a pattern yet. Maybe Angee?