Sunidesus Knits

These went fast! They're in Colinette Jitterbug which is slightly thicker than the sock yarn I usually use. It's very soft, and something I find interesting is that the inside of the socks (the reverse stockinette side) is softer than the outside of the socks. Usually I find that that's the other way around.

The first sock of the pair is the one that went with me to see the Harlot in Northampton. Had to have special sock yarn for that!

They're basically my standard generic toe-up sock formula. I've been experimenting with the Widdershins heel for my toe-ups and with this pair I'm finally sure I have the math of it down no matter what my starting number of stitches. So I think I'm going to start using it as my default heel instead of the short-row heel.

The other thing I did was use a double-crochet bind off instead of the EZ sewn bind off. It's nice and stretchy like the sewn bind off, but I don't have to worry about running out of yarn partway through! I used the Knitty tutorial for the how to's.

The Stats...
Needles: 1 (2.5mm)
Yarn: Colinette JItterbug in Florentine
Pattern: generic toe-up, Widdershins heel, 2x2 rib at top, double crochet bind-off
Sizing: 14/needle up to 26/needle (started with 12/needle on the second sock), 5" until heel gusset start
SPI: 6.5
Started: 5-29-2007
Finished: 6-9-2007

It's more socks! These were started because I was training someone at work and once we arrived at the "baby-sitting" portion of training I could knit while keeping an eye on him. But it needed to be something simple that I could put down at a moment's notice if I needed to jump in. So, plain vanilla toe-up stockinette it was! I love knitting stockinette socks anyway so it's not like this was much of a sacrifice!

This was my first time with this yarn. It's a teensy bit on the scratchy side, but I'm sure it will soften up once it's washed. That's what usually happens anyway. And I managed to get the stripes to match up with each other exactly. The toes match, heels match, ribbing matches. Which is just kind of fun. Not something that I have to have (fraternal socks are perfectly fine with me too!) but it makes me grin when it works out that well.

The Stats...
Needles: 0's (2mm)
Yarn: Reynolds Swizzle - color 4001
Pattern: generic toe up, 5" until the heel gusset start, Widdershins heel, 2x2 rib at the top, sewn bind-off
Sizing: 14/needle up to 30/needle
SPI: 7.5
Started: 5-23-2007
Finished: 6-15-2007

edited to add: The socks have now been through the washer and dryer and they did indeed soften up. They're now wonderfully soft and not even the tinniest bit scratchy. Yay!

It's another pair of Monkeys! These are for my mom though. My last pair were for me. I did these basically the same way. I used Lorna's again, but in a different colorway. Red this time since my mom loves red. I also added one pattern repeat to the leg because she likes her socks tall.

I also started the pattern while I was still on the heel flap. I've done the Widdershins heel enough times at this point that I felt confident doing that and it worked! There's one pattern repeat on the heel flap before the leg starts.

I think I must have knitted slightly looser than before since I got 7.5 SPI this time vs. 8 SPI last time. Same yarn, same needles, so it must be me!

The Stats...
Needles: 0 (2mm)
Yarn: Lorna's Laces - Red Rover colorway
Pattern: Monkeys, toe-up, Widdershins heel, added one pattern repeat to the leg
Sizing: 14/needle up to 32/needle, 7" until heel start
SPI: 7.5 in the stockinette
Started: 5-3-2007
Finished: 6-25-2007

I'm home on vacation at the moment and my mom had said she'd like to try the whole KoolAid yarn dyeing thing. So I brought home a couple skeins and we had fun!

The top picture is what I did. We re-skeined it so I could have a bunch of nice long color stretches. The colors are various combinations of Lemonade, Orange, Ice Blue Raspberry, and Wilton's Violet. The rightmost purply/blue spot has gone darker as it's dried, and the leftmost purpley spot has skewed a tad to the pink.

The bottom picture is what Mom did. The colors are Black Cherry, Lemonade, and a combination of Ice Blue Raspberry and Wilton's Violet.

Mom's yarn is KP Bare, 75% superwash 25% nylon. I used the KP Bare 100% Wool, handwash.

I'm calling these my Sunset Socks even though I realize they don't look particularly sunset-y. The reason is the yarn. I hand-painted it with Kool Aid and my inspiration was the colors in a sunset. The end result in sock form isn't particularly sunset-esque though. I am planning to try again but with longer color stretches and hopefully Sunset v. 2.0 will work out a bit better! You can see a bit of the color progression the way I was envisioning it in the bind-off on the bottom picture.

At any rate. It's KP Bare superwash which is lovely stuff. This is the third pair I've knit with it and I really like it. Very soft stuff!

This is what seems to be becoming my standard toe-up recipe. Magic Cast-on, Widdershins heel, 2x2 rib for a bit at the top, double crochet bind-off. It works for me!

The Stats...
Needles: 0's (2mm)
Yarn: KP Bare, hand painted by me
Pattern: generic toe-up, Widdershins heel, 2x2 rib at top, double crochet bind-off
Sizing: 14/needle up to 32/needle, 3" until heel start
SPI: 8
Started: 6-15-2007
Finished: 6-27-2007