I finished a project this evening. After finishing the baby blanket, I decided not to jump right into a lace project. Instead, I cast on for a pair of socks. I love knitting socks, and have been knitting them since my very early days as a knitter.
I decided to knit Monkey based upon recommendations from some friends who recently knit up the pattern. I’ll agree that it was a simple to memorize pattern, and enjoyable knitting. Like most of my knitting, however, I did not follow the pattern exactly as written. First, I knit the pattern at a slightly larger gauge than the pattern called for, based upon how I like the Socks that Rock when it knits up. Second, I did not complete the plain knit heel. Instead, I substitued the Eye of Partridge heel. Last, I like a rounder toe, so I modified the toe shaping to reduce to 8 stitches before grafting.
The yarn is a bit more pink than I had hoped would end up in the finished sock. But, overall I’m pleased with the way the socks turned out.
Pattern: Monkey, Winter 2006 Knitty
Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight (100% Superwash Merino)
Quantity: 1 skein, 360 yards / 329m
Color: Waterlilies
Needles: Addi Turbo 2.5mm
Started: May 26, 2007
Completed: June 12, 2007
There has been a bit of stash enhancement lately, all sock yarn. First up is the yarn I purchased in Madison over Memorial Day weekend. At Lakeside Fibers, I purchased Tofutsies in the color 724, Foot the Bill. When I compare the size of the ball of Tofutsies with any of my other sock yarns, I find it difficult to believe that it has 425m. The ball of yarn is very small and dense. But, the yarn feels super soft, and I can’t wait to work with it.
At ‘Tis the Season, in Middleton, I purchased some Trekking XXL in color 69. I haven’t decided if this will become socks for me or not. It’s a little drab compared to most of my sock yarn. Perhaps it will become socks for my husband.
Finally, this last one doesn’t really count as stash enhancement. Back at the end of March, KTog had a yarn swap party. At the party, Donna made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. She offered up some of her custom dyed yarn from her Etsy shop, MySmallWonders, in exchange for some handdyed loopy mohair that I had. I finally picked the yarn that I wanted, and Donna brought it to KTog on Tuesday. This is the Dew on the Violets colorway of her fingering weight yarn, with about 383 yards. It is an 80% Wool, 20% Nylon blend. I was wonderfully suprised by how soft it is. I may just need to get more yarn from her.
Now, there have been times in the past that where I’ve tended to buy sock yarn with similar colors, but nothing like this has happened before. I can’t believe how close in color these two yarns are. The yarn from MySmallWonders does have a bit more variation in color than the Tofutsies, with some subtle pinks and yellows mixed in. But, all I see when I look at them is green, turquoise, and purple.
Today’s Web Wednesday is knitting related. One of the newer podcasts that I’ve been checking out is the KnitPicks podcast. It is interesting to hear the stories of some of the employees of KnitPicks, I sometimes wonder what it would be like to work in a knitting related business.
Most interesting to me so far has been Episode 4, Wool: from start to finish. In that episode, Kelley discussed the characteristics of the fleece from different type of sheep, and how that effects the end yarn. I’ve often heard of crimp and staple length, but never really thought about how it applys to the yarn. As someone who isn’t a spinner, this was really informative.
Check it out at http://www.knitpicks.com/content/index.php/cat/podcast/
This is a baby hat I finished pre-blog. For me, this hat pattern is my standard baby gift. This one is going to be gifted tomorrow, so I thought I’d photograph it first. Since there are no small children here to model, Mr. Puffin volunteered to be my model. The baby is already a few months old. I hope the hat still fits him.
Last week, I was luck to get in on a deal at Amazon. They were offering the two-pack of Knitting Nature by Norah Gaughan and Last Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson for only $10.98 (this deal is now sold-out). Being a bit of a knitting book junkie, I couldn’t pass up this deal. My books arrived on Friday, and I finally got a chance to sit down and look through them. While these books are not newly published, I still will comment on them.
The first thing I noticed upon looking throught Knitting Nature was the size of the sweaters. The book features a lot of oversized garments; in many of the patterns, the smallest pattern is a size 40 chest. There is an interesting mix of designs in this book. With the weird asymetrical edges on a few of the garments, I can’t imagine what body type they would be flattering on. However, a few of the patterns have ended up on my future projects list. When I first flipped through the book, I couldn’t help but love the Ram’s Horn Pullover, below on the left. This one is definitely on the must-knit list. I also really like the Phyllo Yoked Pullover on the right.
There were several additional patterns that I enjoyed and would consider knitting. The Serpentine Coat on the left would have to be shortened to a normal length cardigan. The Honeycomb Henley has a bit too much ease on the model, but would be cute if it fit closer to the body.
Finally, I can’t explain it, but I am attracted to the Cowl Pullover. Each time I flip through the book I stop to look some more. I doubt that I’d ever knit it or wear it, but something about it calls to me.
Of course, as it seems to happen in my world, I seem to not love the popular patterns from this book. Browsing the knitalong, it seems very few people are knitting anything from this set of patterns.
In the Last Minute Knitting Gifts book, I did not find as many patterns that I enjoyed. I think the Sweater and Sock minis is adorable, but who doesn’t love knitting in miniature? The Hourglass Sweater is a nice, basic raglan sweater. Overall, I don’t see myself knitting from this book very often, but I’ll keep it on the shelf.
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