Possessed to Knit

Handspun Thayer Completed

I spun merino roving with my Spanish Peacock Russian support spindles and plied the singles on my wheel to create a 2-ply lace yarn.  I had 8 ounces or so of a gray merino fleece and I sent it off to be processed into roving.  The resulting yarn is just over 4 ounces and it has a wide range of wraps per inch.  It was a challenge to spin and of course, the very thin parts from one ball were plied with the very thin parts of the other ball.

I wanted a nice lacy pattern and selected Brooklyn Tweed's Thayer design.  This time around, I slipped both stitches before purling two stitches together through the back loops and that step went much more smoothly.  This particular design has lace patterning on the right and wrong side.  I also took out one of the 19 stitch repeats to optimize the limited amount of handspun yarn.  I used my Knit Picks size 6 straight 10" needles and the entire ball of yarn.  I am not set up yet to block with my blocking wires, so I washed the scarf, spun it out, and then let it dry on my drying rack.  I'm not happy with the edges and blocking it better would improve the scarf over all.  With the wide range of thickness throughout the yarn, I thought that blocking it on the drying rack would be good enough.  This scarf is about 8" wide and 74" long and feels very soft with a nice spring to it. 

Handspun Lace Beret Completed

I spun up some alpaca seconds that Kate had given to me into a 2-ply yarn on my Schacht Cherry Matchless wheel.  I had the alpaca processed into roving and rediscovered it as I unpacked my craft items after our move.  I started off with the 11:1 ratio in double drive with a semi-worsted draw and switched to 9:1 ratio as I was getting too much twist.  I made a center-pull ball and plied on the highest ratio, 22:1.  I have read about to a larger whorl size for plying worsted, but with my Matchless, I ply even faster with my smallest super hi-speed whorl.  On my Lendrum, I was limited to the whorl sizes on the plying head flyer.  The Matchless set-up allows me to use any whorl for plying so I went with my fastest one.

I have to be careful when I spin alpaca as it can take a lot of twist and become wiry.  I was disappointed, though, in the stitch definition for this pattern and wonder if a little more twist would have improved it.  The hat is the Lace Beret from Vogue Knitting Fall 2009.  I started off with my 2.00 mm (size 0) Addi bamboo dpns, but they a little short to handle so many stitches so I used my 40" Addi 2.00 mm Circular needles and the Magic Loop.  I moved up to the 2.75 mm (size 2) Addi  Lace 16" Circular needles for the patterned section of the hat switching to my 32" Addi Sock Rocket needles to work the Magic Loop for the crown .  This project used 3.2 ounces of my 3.4 ounce ball of handspun alpaca.  I'm glad I had enough for this fun project.  Although I checked the errata for this pattern, there were a few mistakes in the chart.  I did not recognize the wrongly placed purl stitches on rows 21 & 22.  I did see something wrong on row 49 and then read all about it in the helpful Ravelry comments for this pattern.   

Gyokuro Socks Completed

Here are my completed Gyokuro socks from Cookie A's August 2012 Sock Club installment.  I knitted them for my neighbor, Kristin, who helped us so much when we moved from Virginia to Alabama.  Amongst other things, she sent us our mail that had not been forwarded, checked on our furnace repair, and put out our overflowing recycling.  She certainly is busy enough already with her young family and her novels and we are deeply indebted to her for her generosity.

The yarn is Enchanted Knoll Farm Superwash sock yarn in the Genmaicha colorway and this color happens to look very nice on Kristin.  I used my 2.25 mm Signature Needle Arts 32 inch circular needles.  I hadn't been very happy with the needle joins, but the stiletto tips were very helpful for this project.  I used my 2.00 Addi Turbo needles for the heels, but not the toes.  I thought the size difference would detract from the toe patterning.

I had an issue with the foot pattern and the lone twisted stitch in the middle.  The reverse stockinette before this stitch was looser than the reverse stockinette after the stitch and this made for a very uneven looking sock.  One might see this better on the Ravelry project pages.  For the second sock, I started the Magic Loop on the far right of the foot instead of just before the middle twisted stitch like I did on the first sock, and this improved the disparity between the two sides.  I tightened up the stitches of the first sock with a dpn, a bit tedious, but well worth the result.

Thank you to Kristin for being such an amazing neighbor! 

Lawrence's Manly Aran Socks Completed

These socks are a belated Christmas gift for my good friend, Lawrence.  At the end of January, Al started a new job so we moved from Northern Virginia to central Alabama.  Needless to say, the move put a big crimp in my knitting time.  We are slowly getting back to normal and now I finally have some time to knit and spin. 

The Manly Aran sock pattern is in Wendy Johnson's Toe-Up Socks for Every Body and the yarn is Knit Picks Risata in the Wood Sage colorway which is the closest I could get to Lawrence's favorite color of jade.  I like the yarn as it is a wool/cotton/elastic blend which should keep its shape and not be too warm.  Lawrence received Turkish wool slippers for Christmas and hopefully, he can wear these socks with his new slippers.

Wendy's patterns are a lot of fun to knit and she cleverly designs them so they look more difficult than they are.  For instance, every other row of this design is just knitting the knits and purling the purls.  She also gives a nice range of sizes which I find helpful.  I started with size 0 Addi Turbo needles for the toes and neglected to realize that I needed them for the sole and went to the 2.5 mm Addi Lace needles for the entire sock.  I eventually discovered my mistake (as the socks were larger than I expected) and got back on track.  I also knitted both of these socks at the same time as I have been disappointed when my socks would turn out differently knitting them one at a time.  I found making a neat bound off edge challenging, too, and that took a few attempts, but well worth the effort.

Thank you for your patience, Lawrence, you will receive your socks this week!

 

Sock Experiment

I have been experimenting with my travel socks, which are what I knit when I am standing in line or any other time I happen to be waiting.  The sock on the left is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock sock yarn in the X-Mas Rock colorway.  The experiment is that I cut the skein in half and knit one round with one half and then switch to the other half for the next round.  I did this because my first attempt gave me an even uglier green stripe down the middle.  I did stagger the colors when starting the second skein half, but as you can see, there is still a green stripe down the middle (and a yellow one down the back).  So, I will give one of Yarnissima's patterns a try, either Brainless or Fire Starter.  I will not be switching skeins either, as I found it to be a bit tedious and did not like the line of warped stitches where the skein change occured.

The other sock is Yarn Love in the Flirt colorway.  I had tried this on size 0 (2.00 mm) needles and it was too small.  I'm using my new Signature Needle Arts 2.25mm circular 32" needles and I'm not crazy about the needle join.  When I go to move the stitches around to work the Magic Loop, the needle edge catches on the stitches and is a bit of work to push the needle through to the other side.  The cord gets twisty, too, and I wonder if I will eventually break the join.  I'm using Chia Goo size 2.00 mm on the X-Mas Rock socks.  The cord is a bit stiff, but the join is much smoother.  I like the joins on my Addi Turbo needles, but I bend those needles as I knit tightly, so my search continues for the perfect sock needles. 

Justin's Filigree Slippers Completed

Here are the Filigree Slippers I knitted for my nephew, Justin.  The pattern is from the book Scandinavian Slippers and Socks.  I used Cascade 220 Superwash in Maroon and Black and size 2.5 mm Addi Turbo 40" needle for the first slipper foot.  Somehow my tension loosens when I use my knitting thimble for a second sock or mitten so I ended up going down to a 2.25 mm Addi Turbo needle for the second slipper foot.  I knitted Fair Isle with the slipper turned inside out to keep me from pulling the yarn too tightly at the edges.  I had to turn it right side out once I got close to completing the toe.

These slippers are started at the heel and a row of waste yarn is knit into the top of the slipper after the heel.  Once the foot is complete, the waste yarn is removed, the stitches are picked up and the ankle/leg section is knit with twined knitting.  I had never done twined knitting and I found it to be utterly annoying.  With two balls of yarn (as two ends from center pull ball result in a very twisted yarn), one stitch is knit with one ball and then the next stitch is knit with the second ball, and the yarn is crossed over the previous yarn, with each stitch.  The two balls of yarn become very tangled and then have to be untangled.  The result is a stretchy, durable fabric, but still, I had no fun knitting this way.  I went up to size 3.0 mm needles on both slippers for this twisted knitting section as the cuff looked too small when I used the 2.5 mm needles.

I had been planning to make Lawrence and John this Danish hotpad, which is knit with twined knitting, from the Folk Mittens book.  Sorry guys, that's probably not going to happen.  Joshua is waiting for his slippers, but I am taking a little break until I find out how these fit Justin.  They could end up being Joshua's slippers if they are too small for Justin. 

Summer Fresh Socks Completed

Here are my completed Summer Fresh socks from the English translation of Stefanie van der Linden's Knit Socks for All Seasons.  I really like this book and want to knit nearly all the patterns in it.  I used Socks That Rock lightweight yarn in the Goody Goody colorway and size 0 (2.00 mm) Addi Lace circular needles for the entire pair of socks.  The crossover cable was a bit tricky, as it involved 6 stitches, but it gives a nice effect. 

I have seen much nicer stitch pattern and variegated yarn combinations on Ann's lovely blog, but this combination worked well enough.  These are very dense socks and each weighs about 60 grams and I am fortunate that my skein of yarn was very generous instead of the usual 100 grams.  These socks turned out to fit my sister, Teresa, perfectly.

Brighton Socks Completed

Here are my latest socks knit with Three Irish Girls Adorn sock yarn in the Brighton colorway.  I used my 2.25 mm Addi Turbo needles for all but the heels and toes where I used my 2.00 mm Addi Turbo needles. 

I worked k2, p2 ribbing for 72 rounds followed by 20 rounds of knitting to a short-row heel down to 12 unwrapped sts.  I then knitted 72 rounds to the toe which I decreased down to 10 sts on each needle.  I passed the edges stitches over the next inner stitches and then grafted the final 8 sts on each needle together.

I almost ran out of yarn and just had a few grams left.  Fortunately Three Irish Girls is generous with their skeins of yarn and gave me more than 100 grams.  Next time I will make the cuffs a little shorter to make certain I have enough yarn.

Skyline Parkway Socks Completed

Here are my completed Three Irish Girl Adorn socks in the Skyline Parkway colorway.  This colorway was one of five limited edition colorways dyed by Three Irish Girls last fall.  There are a lot of flecks of color in this yarn so I can only imagine what a challenge it was to dye this particular colorway.

Adorn sock yarn is very nice with 80% merino and 20% nylon.  I used my 2.25 mm Addi Turbo 40" needles and 72 sts for most of the sock going down to size 2.00 mm for the heels and toes.  I like the short-row heel a lot as it is easy to replace when necessary, however, it gives less space in the ankle/heel area than flap heels do.  Going up to a 2.25 mm needle for the leg and foot of the sock helps to compensate for this. 

Now I just need some cooler weather before I can wear these new socks!

Wayward Socks Completed

Here are my completed Wayward Socks from the first installment of the Cookie A Sock Club.  The yarn is Alisha Goes Around Richness (of Martens) Fingering yarn (75% fine Superwash Merino Wool & 15% Cashmere) in the Genevieve colorway.  The yarn is lovely to knit with and is very soft. 

These socks took me a while to knit as I ended up re-knitting the foot of the second sock because if felt too big.  I noticed on Ravelry that some club members went down a needle size for the foot.  Since I did not do that for the first sock, I did not want to do that for the second sock so I just knitted more tightly.

I adore Cookie A's patterns and do adjust them slightly as I knit them.  She will have the purl as the first stitch on the needle.  I find that this will create a bigger ladder than usual and I move the stitches around to have each needle start with a knit stitch.  This toe is very square due to the nature of her intricate toe pattern and I even moved on stitch from each end over the next stitch a la Cat Bordhi.  These socks were a challenge to photograph and look much nicer when being worn.