Knitting FO: Lunasea Socks

I could probably temporarily rename this blog "Adventures in knitting stuff that I've had queued on Ravelry for more than 2 years", with the way I've been choosing projects lately.  The latest FO is another pair of socks (first official knitting project for the Seam Allowance!): the Monkey pattern by Cookie A., out of Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight in the Lunasea colorway.  This sock yarn has, in the past, been a little odd to work with. It's a very dense sock yarn, really almost a sport weight compared to stuff like Tosh sock or Malabrigo sock.  It's also very tightly spun and plied, and thus it's not nearly as rub-against-your-cheek-and-sigh soft as those, either.  It knits up into an incredibly hard-wearing fabric, though.  Of all the sock yarns I've knit with, the socks I've knit out of this yarn have yet to get holes (and after five years of being in the rotation, that's saying something).

Gauge has been tricky for me with this yarn in the past, though.  Knitting it up on size 0's is ridiculously dense: more like kevlar than socks.  Knitting on size 1.5's often yields a sock that is comically large in the foot, though.  Oh, and I should mention that only recently have I acquired size 1 sock needles.  So for these socks, I knit the feet on size 1's and the legs on size 1.5's, and it worked like a charm!  They fit nicely, and I'm still as in love with this colorway as I was when I first purchased the yarn back in 2007 (yikes).

 

Just like everyone else in knitterdom has told you, the Monkey pattern is a great one.  There's a reason it's so popular: the lace pattern isn't too hard to read or memorize, it does a great job of breaking up any potential pooling in your variegated yarns, and the rest of the sock construction is straightforward.  I will almost certainly knit this pattern again sometime, as I still have lots of variegated sock yarn in the stash.  

Knitting FO: Darjeeling Socks

A large portion of the sock yarn I own was collected between 2007-2009, or as I'm going to call them, "The Variegated Years".  This was a time when I was fresh out of grad school, dizzy with the prospect of a real honest-to-goodness paycheck coming in every month.  It was during this time period that my stash size exploded, and one very big enabler instigator assistant in this process was The Loopy Ewe.  Now, don't get me wrong, I love Sheri over at Loopy.  She helped me build a very nice sock yarn stash that is a beautiful (if a bit worryingly large) source of inspiration. 

This yarn, Numma Numma Toasty in the colorway "Apple Butter" was no exception.  And plus, it's mostly browns and tans!  They're neutrals, so they'll go with anything, right? Right, except we have to actually KNIT the socks before we can dash around in their delicious golden-hued warmth, pretending we live somewhere the leaves on trees change color in the fall.  I actually went back to my order history and saw that this yarn was purchased in January 2008, which means I've had this yarn sitting around in my stash for more than four years.

I bet if, back in 2002 you'd asked my husband-now-but-boyfriend-at-the-time if this knitting thing would go this far, he would not have ever suspected that I could be the type of person capable of purchasing yarn and then hanging onto it for more than 4 years because it was just too pretty to let go.  What can I say?  Must be the wool fumes.

If I love the yarn so much, how come it's taken this long?  Well, I went off sock knitting for a while, and then just when I started to get back on the wagon, something had shifted subtly in sock knitting.  Before, everyone was looking at color combos and coming up with hilariously funny (and sometimes punny) names for their colorways.  Now, it was all about solids and semi-solids and shaded solids.  Or self-striping, but in the very meticulous way that means you probably just want to knit a plain old pair of stockinette socks and not put any kind of stitch pattern on there to muss up the colors.  It was just that much more difficult to find a pattern that I could really visualize in a variegated yarn.

The Darjeeling Sock from Knitter's Book of Socks though, had all the hallmarks of being a good pattern for a very colorful yarn.  Purl-stitch rows, broken ribbing, and on top of that it has interesting arch shaping in an unexpected place!  I was flipping through the book trying to decide which pattern to knit after finishing my pajama socks, and knew this would be next.  And I was right, it's great for variegated yarn.

I've since finished these socks, and they're very nice.  I've learned to make my socks a tiny bit longer in the feet, since the soles of my socks tend to felt a tiny bit and shrink up after many wearings, and I think this will help them hold up a little better.  I did the surprisingly stretchy bind-off at the top of these socks, which was a new technique for me.  I knit these until I practically ran out of yarn, so they end quite high on my leg and the extra stretch is more than welcome.  I'll probably knit this pattern again, and I think the only thing I'd change is the pattern on the heel flap, which was a little hard to keep track of during knitting.  But other than that, I can't wait to add these beauties into my sock rotation on the next chilly morning! 

Knitting FO: Bed Socks

In perusing the last few posts, I realized that I never showed you guys the amazing socks I made for myself (and I have to break up the sewing content somehow!). When I heard Clara Parkes talk about socks at Verb (many moons ago) I had recently listened to Brenda Dayne talk about pajama socks. We were able to touch all the samples from the Knitter's Book of Socks at Clara's talk, and I knew that the Strago pattern by Jared Flood would make excellent pajama socks.

My husband and I are both of the same mind when it comes to sleeping: it should be warm enough that you can actually fall asleep, but not so hot that you don't need a blanket or two. We'd both rather be a little too cold than a little too warm. Because I tend to run a little cooler than he does, that usually means that what's comfortable for me is a bit too warm for him.  Also, my feet just get cold if they're not covered.  The Strago socks are perfect bed socks because they're loose-fitting enough that you can slip them off by gently sliding your feet around while half-asleep.



One of the main things I was worried about was choosing two colors that were too similar in value for the pattern to show up well, so I tried to get shades on opposite ends of the color wheel.  The two colors of Shelter I chose (Hayloft and Faded Quilt) match my owl pajama pants perfectly.

The only change I made to the pattern was to knit the entire sock on 4 mm (US 6) needles, because I have pretty narrow feet and was worried about the socks staying on my feet as I pad around the apartment in them.  The woolen-spun Shelter yarn happily accepted my tighter gauge, and the fabric feels like soft cushy felt underneath my feet.  We've been getting a few sunny days here and there, but we'll get lots of June gloom as well, so these will probably continue to get lots of use even during the summer months.  

Finish-it-up-itis

I might be having a bout with it. Seaming on the mitered square blanket is coming along apace. Four of the six strips are done, which means that I've done more than 2/3 of the seaming. My travel project, the striped Gothsocks, also got finished last night:



These socks were about as simple as possible: 72 stitches on size 1 needles (although I used 0's for the cuff, heels, and toes), 2x2 ribbed cuff, plain stockinette leg and foot, with an simple wedge toe and identical afterthought heel. The Gothsocks yarn is lovely, and I have quite a bit left over. Perhaps some matching fingerless mitts?



I also finished up the quilt from two posts ago. After I finished the basting, I waffled for a few days over whether to machine quilt or tie this one. I even bought supplies for either option. In the end, I decided to go with the ties. I used 6-strand cotton embroidery thread and put one tie at each corner junction and in the center of each block. Looking at this quilt, I love how the navy blue fabric used for the border and the blocks in the center brings a sense of coherence to the design.



I'm also very glad I decided to include a strip in the backing. Again with the coherence.



My favorite elements of this quilt are really summed up in this photo:



I was pretty careful to sew the bird blocks so that all the birds were facing up, but I missed one. When I first realized I only considered ripping the seam for about 30 seconds. This project had too much momentum. Now, I'm gad I left it the way it is. Every time I see that one bird, I laugh and think of him saying "Herp derp, I'm a bat!" In the original plan, I was going to bind the quilt with the same poppy-red fabric I used in the back, but at the last minute I decided to do the binding in the bird fabric. In the picture above you can see one of the little birds sneaking a peek at us from the binding. I think I ended up with three of these sneaky binding birds. So cute!

So that's the latest FO update for now. But I'm already plotting. The best part about finish-it-up-itis is that after it's made its way though the craft space you get to start new things!

Three things

First things first. I can now finally blog about this project:





Two knitting friends are both pregnant (and are due pretty close to one another), and the various knitting circles all banded together to make them collective baby blankets. We threw them a lovely BBQ lunch baby shower this past weekend, where they got to have all the fun of arranging the blanket squares and none of the stress of seaming. Two of the more motivated knitters (myself not included) made adorable matching cardigans out of the blanket leftovers.



I got put unofficially in charge of the seaming, since I wrote up the pattern we used for the squares. It's not difficult to figure out, just garter stitch mitered squares. The only difference is that most of the patterns out there are written so that you start by casting on a small number of stitches and increasing out, while the pattern we used starts with a large circular cast on and then decreases as you go in. I'll be writing up the pattern and posting it for free on Ravelry later in June.

I'd like to say that I haven't been posting because I've been working on this secret project, but it wouldn't be true. I have been working on the secret project, but that's not really why I haven't been posting. I haven't been posting because the end of this semester has been utterly brutal. Brutal hours, brutal workload, brutal anticipation over the fall schedule, brutal on my coworkers, brutal on me. Things have mostly settled down (and I still have a job come August), but I've had what feels like about 48 hours to catch my breath. I managed to have one lazy weekend morning:



and then it was finals week, and second finals week (I know. I had two finals weeks this spring. Like I said, brutal), and then Memorial Day weekend and far-flung friends in from out of town, and then we had to drop the cat off at the in-laws' place. In the meantime I somehow managed to spin some yarn (Polwarth dyed by Dicentra Designs):



and knit a pair of socks (Toe-up Jaywalkers in Sheepaints Sock'n Go in the Wunsch Brunnen colorway.



I'm very glad to use up this yarn, because it is from truly deep in the stash (circa 2008 I think?). Plus, I'll be able to wear the socks this week while we're camping in Yellowstone. It's supposed to be cold there... so I'll be knitting hats on the car trip out there.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...

I am so scatterbrained right now, I am going to do something I normally do not do: blog in list format.

1. We attended the wedding of some very near and dear friends this weekend. We stayed here. The food was amazing, the weather gorgeous, the lung capacity severely diminished due to tight-fitting bridesmaids dress and altitude. It was gorgeous, woodsy, and a heckuva lot of fun.

2. I might be going through a career transition. If I seem reluctant and/or absent-minded when speaking about my job, know that I am trying to work through some things about what I really want to be when I grow up and how to best accomplish that while still providing for my personal needs.

3. My mittens are up for voting, and the pattern has been proofread and proofknit. I am going to decide how to distribute the pattern after the contest is over. If you think the design from four posts down was nice and have access to the Ravelries, feel free to go here and cast your vote by tomorrow. For the record, here's another shot of the mittens to which I am referring.



4. I started a pair of jaywalker socks on the airplane. There will be photos forthcoming, but they are being knit out of this handspun:



5. I am excited about holiday knitting this year. I may have already begun a box full of items for gifting. I may have purchased this for the plane ride home. This is very strange to me, given my feelings on gift knitting last year. More on that later.

6. I totally thought I had more than 5 things to tell you all. Huh.

Blogging in the Wild

This morning I'm writing from an internet cafe with reasonably good hot oatmeal down by the ocean. It's been foggy and cooler in the mornings over the past few days, signaling the end of San Francisco's late-clinging summer season. It's not quite cold enough for me to need my sweater indoors, but if I decide to take a stroll along the beach after finishing this I'll need it to keep the chill off.

Looks like once a week is pretty much the norm for blogging while school is on, huh? I guess I should just try to accept the reality of my schedule, now that I'm almost halfway through the semester. It's been crappy picture-taking weather, too, but I don't have all that much to show you guys anyway.



I love the colors on this yarn! Yummy yummy yummy. The wensleydale is still waiting for its bath, and I didn't start a new spinning project this week, mostly because the rest of the weekend slipped away from me. If you're not up to date on the latest San Francisco news, this past Saturday was the grand re-opening of the California Academy of Sciences. The new location is in Golden Gate Park, right across from the De Young museum and really close to lots of other fun places like the Japanese Tea Gardens, the Rose Garden, the Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Gardens, the Conservatory of Flowers, and the Shakespeare Garden (man, we like us some growing things in SF, don't we?).

We were insanely lucky and managed to get tickets to the Chihuly exhibit before it closed at the De Young, and it was just incredible. The significant other was in charge of the camera, if I can find the photos I'll share some next time.

And then on Saturday, we went out for our usual brunch and decided we would go look at the spectacle around the new Cal Academy. Entry was free on Saturday, and it seemed like everyone in the city descended on our little corner to try and find parking. There was a line of cars extending out to 19th Avenue (the entrance to the park is at 9th Avenue, for comparison). It was just a little ridiculous. We already had plans to go with out-of-town friends on Sunday, so we didn't hang out too much in the crowds. On Sunday things were much more chill, and the new Cal Academy is really wonderful. It was still too crowded for us to get into a planetarium show, but we will definitely be going back, and probably soon. The exhibits are well-done, I love watching the penguins, and I really did learn new things during our visit.

The rest of the week was so crazy that I barely had time to pick a new project for Purl Jam on Tuesdays (link is to Ravelry group). I pretty much grabbed the first project on top of my "didn't get to over the summer" pile: Rivendell socks in Sundara sock yarn, color Evergreen over lime.



These might end up being a gift as well... we'll see how it goes! I learned my lesson about sock sizing on my last pair of Jaywalkers, and I'll be doing the leg on size 1.5's and the heel, sole, and toe on size 0's (both sets of two addi turbo circulars). I got a surprisingly large amount of knitting done on Tuesday night, but I haven't had time to touch the socks since then. Now I'm off to wash some fleece, since it's Friday. Catch you all next week!

Wherein I get my sock mojo back

The Yarn Harlot put me on her blog with the beer I made her! Squee! I could not be more excited, very awesome. The link there is to the entry with my picture in it, you have to scroll down a bit.

I've been spinning spinning spinning recently, and getting a little worried at how it piles up so fast! It's quite addicting because I can have a whole new skein of delicious handspun in a few hours, and my brain views this as way more exciting than another mitered square. But seeing the Yarn Harlot got my brain back on socks, and it's been a while since I finished the Salish Sea socks. So on Monday night I finally pulled out my Bitter Orange yarn and cast on for a pair of socks. These will be large guy-patterned socks for the significant other (these are so his colors):



In this picture you can see one of the frighteningly abrupt changes in the thickness of the yarn, and the nifty orange stripe on the leg. It happened all by itself, no planning! These are pretty generic toe-up socks on my trusty size 2 (2.75 mm) Addi Turbos. These Addis were the first pair of sock needles I bought (man that was back in the day). I'm getting a gauge of somewhere between 5.5 and 6 stitches to the inch, and the foot is 52 stitches around. I also have a little 4-stitch cable running up the side of the foot and leg. Hey Ruth is it okay if I shamelessly steal borrow your design idea? I think it's fabulous for a guy's sock. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. :)

Between the charming little cable and the rather big gauge, the first sock just flew off my needles. In contrast, when I was doing the Salish Sea socks, it was fairly slow plodding along. I'm guessing there needs to be something (ANYthing!) in the pattern to keep me going. I whipped through the heel turn and cuff on those, but the legs took freakin' forever. After only four days, the Bitter Orange sock is awaiting another four rounds of ribbing or so and a bind-off. This sock is actually a lot of firsts for me: first handspun socks, first self-designed socks I took copious notes on, first time I've used South African fine wool, first guy's socks I didn't use a pattern for. I'm hoping I'll be able to start the second one today, but the outlook is not so good. The significant other leaves for Germany this Wednesday, so this afternoon and evening is the big going-away bash at our (rather small) apartment. Originally I wanted to have the socks done for him before he leaves, but I don't think that will happen, because I still have to do things like eat and shower and go to work. Oh yeah, I guess that means no buttons for the Tangled Yoke yet, either.

I guess I might be farther along if I hadn't done any spinning this week. I finished up the Pigeonroof Studios Hydrangeas superwash merino roving that I bought at Color. It's about 145 yards, a fairly consistent DK weight. It would probably be more consistent in thickness if I hadn't taken a four-day break in between spinning the two halves of the bump:



I'm in love with it anyway. Those are two really awesome colors: the pale ice teal blue mixing with the vibrant warm purple. Yum! Here, have a gratuitous close up:



Oh, and just a quick reminder (to myself as much as any of you reading): Go give your mom a kiss tomorrow, or at least call her!