Sunidesus Knits

So here we go with my first knitting project on the Craft Blog!

When I went to get my first nice yarn at a "real" yarn store, the lady there suggested keeping track of what I make so that in the future if I want to repeat something or use a similar yarn or something I have it all written down. And since I'm a geek that is now yet another blog! But this way it's also easy to search and can easily include pictures and links and all kinds of geeky goodness!

Without any further ado... off we go!

This is from a pattern found here which I followed just about exactly since it was my first try.

I used some blue Red Heart Supersaver yarn that was in the craft closet. I used #7 needles, cast on 30 sts for the body, started with 6 sts for the ears (which were too big, should have done 5 sts). Body in stockinette, ears in garter, and a little coil of white i-cord for the tail. The body ended up 5 1/2 inches long (not including the tail) and it's about 3 inches across. The weave is nice and tight.

I'm supposed to write about the yarn too. It's nice that the stuff is non-dye lot, and it's inexpensive. But it felt kinda scratchy while I was working with it. The finished product doesn't feel scratchy though. Not really soft either, but definately not scratchy. If I'm using craft store yarn I'd rather use the Caron Super Soft stuff.

OK, so there's the first entry to the Craft Blog!

Bunny try number 2! OK technically it's the third one, but the second one was a disaster and I need to rip it apart 'cuz it looks bizarre.

So this time I used the #7 needles again, cast on 30 sts, stockinette for the body, 5 sts, garter for the ears. And another i-cord tail. It's about 4 1/2 inches long not including the tail, and 2 1/2 inches wide. The weave is a little looser than I'd like. I think I'll try #6 needles and see if that works better.

The yarn is purple Jo Sharp Kid Mohair. The yarn was a little itchy to work with, but the end result is all fuzzy and soft so a little itchy in the creation is ok with me!

Update: I made another one with this yarn on #6 needles. I followed the exact same pattern, just changed the needles. I did indeed like the finished product better. It's slightly smaller, but it's tighter.

There's a reason for all the bunnies, promise. They're for Sweet Binks to sell.

#7 needles again, cast on 25 sts for the body, 4 sts for the ears, i-cord tail. This guy ended up quite tiny, just 3 1/2 inches by 2 inches. I like how tight the weave is, so this yarn stays on the #7 needles.

And speaking of the yarn, it's light brown Caron Simply Soft. Very soft and smooth to work with. It's what I used for my crazy Dr. Who scarf and I like working with it. Hmmm, s'pose I need to make a post for that thing too!

I actually finished this a few weeks ago, I've just been pokey about posting it. It's not a scarf, it's not a bunny. It's a pillow! I wanted to try doing a pattern and a pillow seemed like a good idea, it's smaller and isn't gonna take forever if I don't like the pattern or if I screw up.

I used some Micro Spun yarn by Lion's Brand (turquoise) on #4 needles.

Cast on 74 sts... the pattern... reverse stockinette for 2 sts, stockinette for 10 sts, reverse for 2, stockinette for 10, reverse 2, stockinette 10, reverse 2... did 6 repeats of that so it ends up being 2 10 2 10 2 10 2 10 2 10 2 10 2. Knit the knits, purl the purls for 6 rows (there and back) then one row (there and back) of reverse stockinette. Go back to the pattern for 6 more rows, then the one row of reverse. Repeat that 12 times so I ended up with a piece of fabric 12"x24". I ended up with 6 pattern blocks the short way and 12 pattern blocks the long way. Fold it in half, mattress stitch up the sides, stick a pillow form inside, stitch up the top. Voila!

I had a lot of fun making this. I learned some new stuff, and it's functional! The yarn is really smooth and ends up quite soft, not fuzzy, but soft. Because it's so smooth it does show every single imperfection, but that also makes it much easier to see what you're doing. So it's a good thing and a bad thing. Plus the color matches my futon cover!

Time for a close up!

I know these posts are right on top of each other, but the projects were actually finished a couple weeks apart. This one I finished up last night.

I've told people at work that if they want something they just have to buy me the yarn. Keva was the first to take me up on it! I originally started trying a more complicated pattern, but the yarn just wasn't conducive to that. So I went with some simple stripes.

The pattern: cast on 45 on #7 needles, stockinette for 4 rows (there and back), reverse stockinette for 1 row (there and back) repeat! I repeated the pattern 16 times and ended up with a 12"x24" piece of fabric just like the other pillow. It was slightly loose around the 12 inch pillow form, but not big enough for a 14 inch pillow. So maybe 40 or 42 stiches for a 12 inch pillow? Or 15 repeats of the pattern instead of 16? It wasn't horrible, just a little more space than I would have liked.

The yarn: It was some blue TLC Amore (by Red Heart). It's very soft and there's lots of little loops all through the yarn. So it's hard to see the stitch you just did! But it ends up really soft and fluffy. And the mattress stitch bits are invisible just because of the yarn. So it's ok if you screw up with this yarn!

I still have a bunch of the blue yarn I used for the Keva Pillow so I decided to make a bun!

As mentioned before, this is TLC Amore yarn, blue (obviously). I used #7 needles, co25. The bun is about 4.5" by 3.5". I really like the end result. He's really fuzzy and the yarn kinda hides the stitches so it's just fluffy. I had similar issues as with the pillow with the needles hanging on the loops of the yarn every now and then. Nothing horrid, just irritating every now and then.

(I've knitted up a second square, just haven't stitched up the bun yet. I'll let you know how that turns out! 2nd bun - #6, co30)

For some reason the color turned out a tad brighter in the picture than the reality! It's a very pretty deep purple, but it's not quite as bright as the picture looks. I think the sunlight made the bunny very happy!

So we have some Caron Simply Soft (violet) on #7 needles, co30, co5 for the ears. End dimensions: 4.5" by 3.5".

I'm not going to say much more about this one. I've already expressed my enjoyment of this yarn and it's another bunny. We've all seen Suni's Buns by now!

Hey look! It's another bunny! This one is alson on Caron Simply Soft (lemonade), but on #6 needles this time. co30, co5 for ears. End dimensions: 4.25" by 3.25". So just a quarter inch smaller than on the #7 needles. Sooner or later I will figure out how to get consistent ears!

I found a link to the pattern for this bugger somewhere (no idea where, don't remember) It's a nautilus! How cool is that?

I didn't want to use anything of the "fancy" yarn variety since I didn't really know what I was doing. So I went with the old reliable Caron Simply Soft (grape & orchid for the shell, off white for the face) I followed the pattern pretty much exactly, I used #6 needles instead of #4 (there's a UFO on my #4's at the moment) I also had a hard time curling the thing as I went. So I made it straight and then curled it after it was all knitted up. Much easier!

The shell part is about 5.5" across, the face adds another couple inches to that.

I had fun making it. I managed to conquer dpn's! Woot! I kinda like making toy type things I think...

OK, it's actually a really bad picture of a hat, but you get the idea.

I used this pattern along with some leftover yarn from the Harry Potter scarf I made for Keva a couple years ago. I followed the pattern with the one exception that I used #6 needles instead of the #9's that the pattern called for. They were the biggest needles I had on hand that didn't have something else on them. Oh, it also said to hold two strands together throughout, I didn't do that. I just did one strand.

The end result is really a quite fun hat! I think I might make another one at some point, but on bigger needles 'cuz on #6's it's a little big tight on my head. Of course I have a massive head so that might have something to do with it too.

I lost the lables for the yarn a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure it was Red Heart Super Saver. I'm not a fan! It's very scratchy and rough and I just don't like it. So next time, bigger needles, softer yarn. Because I really do like the hat, it's a fun design! And very quick, I knit this bugger up in just a couple days (an hour or two each day I think) Plus, I now know how to do short rows! Yay!

This little guy was my Mother's Day present to my mom. The pattern is here. The picture that goes with the pattern is rather more short and fat than mine, and the head looks different... I'll have to work on that next time...

I followed the pattern except for the recommended yarn. I used the old reliable Caron Simply Soft. I like using that stuff when I don't know what I'm doing!

It's the slip-stitch warshrag from the MDK book!

I used a light blue and an off white 100% cotton worsted-weight from Sugar n'Cream. The pattern doesn't belong to me so I'm not reprinting it here. It was really fun and easy to knit up. The only problem I have is with the right edge, it just doesn't look smooth and "finished" to me. But I'm not really sure what to do about that.

I've heard other people have problems knitting with cotton, but I was ok with that. My only issue was that it has a kind of strange texture to it. It almost feels like cloth that has had soap dry in it, kind of waxy I guess. But the finished product doesn't have that feel at all. I've since started the bathmat project from the book with Peaches and Cream and it doesn't have that weird feel to it. No idea what that's all about.

(cross-posted to the MDK Knit-a-long)

Close up!

This is the baby bib from the MDK book. I followed the directions exactly (I think!) using just about an entire ball of Peaches and Cream yarn (color, Sea Mist) and #7 needles.

And I just got an e-mail from work and the intended victim recipient of the bib arrived around 5 this morning! Apparently she was in labor during the 5 last night (my show in case you're wondering) I had no idea!

(cross-posted to the MDK Knit-A-Long)

I just had to take a picture of this... I used my hand-knit! And oh my word does cotton take a long time to dry!

It's my first mitre! One of the other gals at the MDK KAL said they used Caron Simply Soft for a blanket and I realized that I have a ton of it laying around the house and there's nothing wrong with using acrylic yarn! And there ya go, 1 down 79 to go! Oh, I'm using #6 needles for this project.

I think I'm going to do black and another color for each mitre. Black & blue, black & purple, black & green, black & yellow... you get the idea.

I have finished my first sock! Go me! It isn't perfect, but I think it's a pretty decent sock.

Yarn Harlot's sock recipe from her book.

co 60 on #2s, 15 rows of 2x2 ribbing, 30 rows of stockinette, heel flap (about 25 rows), gussett and decreases according to her recipe, 26ish rows of stockinette, then a round toe following these instructions (I went through to the K4, K2tog... knit four rows plain step) and then grafted the toe.

Issues: holes along the heel flap where I picked up stiches, slightly loose around the ankle (even though the upper part and the foot part are fine) and funky bump where the toes were grafted.

Sock #2... I'm going to start with 56 stitches and see what happens...

They're done! They aren't perfect, there's some issues to be worked out, but they're socks and I made them!

And now the important stuff: I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn, It's super soft and was extremely easy to work with. The lady at the yarn store said I'd need two skeins for a pair, but my leftover skeins are both the same weight as the socks so I think I can get another pair out of it! (have I mentioned I have tiny feet? seriously, I shop in the boys section of the shoe store for sneakers)

I used the Yarn Harlot's sock recipe for both of them. The first one was 60 stitches on a #2 needle, that one was a touch too big so I did the second one as 56 stitches. I also made the first one using dpn's and the second one doing Magic Loop. Personally, Magic Loop makes knitting socks fun for me, dpn's just made it a pain. I did 15 rows of 2x2 ribbing and then 30 of stockinette and then the heel and all of that. I'm not sure how many rows I did before I started decreasing for the toe, but I went until it reached the middle of the ball of my foot and then I did a round toe and then grafted when it was long enough.

For the second one I tried to deal with the holes along the heel flap by knitting into the back of the stitches after I picked them up. That helped. There's still a weird hole right at the spot where the heel flap starts and I'm not sure what to do about that, but the holes all down the side of the flap are gone. So that's one issue. They also seem a little baggy right around the top of my foot near my ankle. Kind of the opposite side of the sock from the heel. I'm really not sure what I need to change to fix that. Do I decrease before I start the heel? Not sure.

But hey, they're socks and I made them! Yay!

For my next trick I'll be trying Wendy's sock recipe to see how I like the whole toe-up short rows thing. Stay tuned!

I finished these ages ago but I've been very lazy about my FO posting!

On the right we have another bib from the MDK book. I followed the pattern for it using Peaches & Creme cotton yarn (color: Daisy) and finished it with a cute little happy face button. I have no idea if I attached the thing properly. I don't think I've every put a button on something before! I think I mentioned this before, but just to make sure... a bib according to the pattern in the book takes up nearly an entire ball of P&C.

On the left is a tweaked pattern. Does this officially make me a knitter? I'm tweaking patterns! I started with the ball band warshcloth pattern from the MDK book, bound off all but 11 stitches and then used those last 11 stitches to countinue the slip-stitch pattern up the strap. I didn't want to pick up more stitches for a second strap so I just made it extra long and put the button on the bib itself. The yarn is Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton in black and red. I used a little truck for the button. There must be quite a bit more yarn in a ball of the Lion Cotton than the P&C, 'cuz I still have quite a bit of it left! Mmmm... dishclothes....

I can't take credit for either of those design tweaks. They're both courtesy of other lovely knitters at the KAL (where this will be cross-posted)

This is my first finished scarf for the Think Pink Challenge. The idea is to make knitted or crocheted scarves (pink of course) for October for Breast Cancer Awareness. I believe they are being given away at some point, but please don't quote me! Go to the website and join in the fun!

Anyway. I used the pattern here I think I used #10 needles, but I'm not entirely positive. (I really need to post these things closer to when I finish them!) I do know that I used some Caron Simply Soft, dark pink for most of the rows and then light pink for the last couple (outside) rows.

OK. this pattern ends up incredibly cute, and I like the end result a lot. However! after the first couple rows I wanted to hurt someone. The increase rows made my hands hurt and cramp up just because it was all so tight. And can you say 720 stitch bind-off row? I honestly had to force myself to do "just a little bit more" in order to finish the stinking thing.

But I do like the end result a lot. So I'm going to try a different spiral scarf pattern and see if I like it better. I think just doing a different kind of increase would make it not so miserable. We shall see!

And because it just has to be included:

That would be my co-worker Jeff. I had the finished scarf at work and he decided to model it (and his pop bottle) for me!

I've been really bad about posting FO's lately! I finished these socks a good month ago (at least!) Oh well, here's the vital info anyway.

These are my second pair of socks and I decided to try the toe-up method that Wendy lays out in her book. I know it's on her website somewhere as well. I used Regia sock yarn on #1 needles, Magic Loop style. I love the Magic Loop! I started off with 60 sts around, did my first short row heel (which I like much better than the heel flap) and then 60 sts for the leg with a little bit of 2x2 rib around the top. On the second sock I decreased to 56 sts for the leg part, I found that more comfortable.

At this point I'd like to include my spi and such, but I am at work and the socks are at home. I shall measure when I get home tonight!

As for the yarn... I really like the coloring of this particular kind of Regia. Each of the plies is a different color and it gives the whole thing a very uniform and yet also varied look. I like it!

These are the first socks I've made for someone else, and I'm incredibly lazy about my FO posting! They've been finished since the beginning of July!

Keva has been the knit object guinea pig of choice so they're for her. She picked out the yarn and after feet measuring I made socks! I didn't want to do anything complicated just yet, so these are straight stockinette, 60 sts around, toe-up, with a 2x2 rib on the cuffs for a couple inches. This was my first time using a self-striping yarn and I'm pretty happy with my matching. It made the leg part really easy. I just did the ribbing over the same part of the pattern, no measuring!

I used size 1 needles, and Clown yarn by Marks & Kattens. So this is also my first time using a cotton blend. Keva said they fit fine when she first put them on, but they stretched a tad as she wore them. So, knowing that and how it knit up, if I use this yarn again (which I will, I have more in my sock yarn bin!) I'll do it on size 0 needles, and a little bit smaller.

I've decided to work on FO posting today. So this'll probably be the first of a bunch of entries today.

This washcloth has been finished since the second week of August. It was the beginning of the month pattern from the Yahoo monthly dishcloth group for August. It was my first time knitting a pattern like this without knowing what it would end up as. I quite enjoyed it! It was fun to guess what it could be.

The yarn is Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton in purple. I've been using this one lately in the kitchen and the purple is bleeding just a tad. Just enough to give the dish water a slight lavender cast. I need to go hunting for how to set a color so that I'll be able to send it through the washing machine with other stuff.

Oh, and I used size 7 needles. That size seems to work the best for me with this particular kind of yarn.

While I was home on vacation at the end of June Mom and I went to the LYS and she picked out some sock yarn for me to make socks for her. They had Mountain Colors, which I hadn't seen but had heard wonderful things about it. One skein of the Winter Sky colorway later...

I started on size 0's, but the fabric was tighter than I like so I switched to 1's. My mom's feet are rather longer than mine so that was interesting! I kept thinking it was just entirely too much sock! I also tried to do a pattern on the legs for the frst time and had a really hard time getting the sizing right. I ended up frogging the leg on the first sock three times before finally going with stockinette with ribbing at the top. Mom also asked that the leg parts be longish, well longer than I like mine. So lots of kniting!

The yarn is incredibly yummy and they have such amazing colorways. Just a couple days ago I bought two skeins of it for a scarf that's been rattling around my head for a while. (which has now been started and I think will turn out well)

Sock close up!

I mailed them off to Mom and they are now traveling with her and my dad on their current work trip. I should ask her to take pictures of them there, that would be cool.

This is Wavy from Knitty. I finished it waaaaaay back at the end of September, but I am a horrible F'ed O poster! This was one of the two scarves I sent to the Think Pink Challenge. The other was the Twisty scarf.

I didn't mess with the pattern at all, the only thing I did differently was that I used Lion Brand Microspun instead of the Cascade 220 that was called for. I used the fuchsia colorway to fit with the whole Thinking Pink of the challenge. I've used the yarn before and I really like it. It's beautifully soft and smooth. This scarf used 2 skeins of the stuff.

I liked knitting this pattern quite a bit. It's a knit/purl pattern that makes the waves and (to me anyway) it almost has the look of cables without actually being cables. It's also reversible which is a lovely quality in a scarf!

Stop!

Macro Time!

Yes, I know. I am a complete and total dork.

I'm working my way through my FO's so here we have a pair of socks I finished around the beginning of October.

Of course I finished these before I started keeping track of exactly what I was doing so I don't remember how many stitches I used or anything like that. I might have used a size 0 needle or a size 1, I'm just not sure! (I have since learned my lesson and now write it all down)

The bits I do remember... the yarn is KP Memories in the Pansy colorway. I used a little lacy pattern from Wendy (it's near the bottom of that entry) for the leg. It was toe-up (of course), short-row heel, I'm not sure if I was still doing short row toes at that point or if I'd switched to the Knitty magic cast-on by then. I know this was my first attempt at a picot bind off and I did the *yo, k2tog* then knit a couple rows for the hem and then sew the whole thing down method. I did not like it! It was a pain and I don't particularly like the way it turned out. I've done picot's the other way now and that seems to work a lot better for me.

This was the August Mid Month pattern from the Yahoo Monthly Dishcloths group. Based on when I took the picture I think I finished this sometime around the end of September/beginning of October.

I used Sugar n'Cream and size 7 needles. The colors I used were Light Blue (00026) for the solid and Pretty Pastels (00199) for the variegated.

I like this pattern quite a bit. I like the little blips of color in the middle of the main color. They kind of look like little flower buds to me.

This is what happens when I procrastinate.

This one was the beginning of the month pattern for September in the Monthly Dishcloths Yahoo group. I finished it after the August Mid-Month one so I'm thinking beginning of October-ish for this one.

Size 7 needles again (those work the best for me with dishcloth cotton yarn), this time the yarn is Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton, they seem to just call it Lion Cotton now but that's what the ball band said. It comes in great big balls and I love that!

I think this is the last washcloth for a while. This one is the Mid-September pattern from the aforementioned Monthly Dishcloths Yahoo group. It seems I finished this one around the beginning of October as well. I bought the yarn on October 14th and took the picture on the 16th so apparently it was a pretty quick knit!

I used the cotton cone yarn that I bought at Webs in October, doubled because it's pretty thin yarn. The end result is a lot thinner than the washcloths with the regular kitchen cotton kind of yarn. I think if I vary the way I hold the two strands together I could get it to either stripe or be kind of uniformly multi-colored. If I single-strand it it'd probably work for something for my mom. She likes her washcloths thin!

The pattern seems like it would transfer easily to a scarf or a shawl.

This is the result of my first Kool Aid dying. (the shot was taken on the way back home from a day wandering around Boston) The base yarn is KP Bare. Keva came over and we mostly just played and squirted colors all over, it was great fun! The thing I find really interesting is that both socks are from the same skein, but one of them has a distinct pinkish cast to it while the other one stayed more white. I'm not sure what caused that but it intrigues me!

And once again we are in the time before I learned to write everything down. (end of October finish date for these guys) I'm sure I used size 0 needles, I almost always do. It was probably something around 64 or 68 stitches around. There's a tad over an inch of 2x2 rib at the top and I used the EZ sewn bind-off.

I've worn them a number of times since I finished them and they're super comfy. I have more Bare laying around and I really need to do some more dying. It's fun!

Presenting Knucks from Knitty. I used Rowan Wool Cotton in color 955 Ship Shape, which is a slightly blueish green. It's really soft and yummy to work with.

Size 4 needles as per the pattern, of course I used a circular and did it Magic Loop style instead of on dpn's but that's not really a pattern modification. For the fingers I did 7 rows on each of them. If I do this pattern again I'd do a couple fewer rows on the pinky finger, but the rest of them were fine.

On the cuff I did 2 rows of 1x1 rib, then shifted the rib over one and did 3 rows, shifted again and went 4 rows, and one more time for 5 rows.

See that little strand at the bottom of the picture? That's how much was left when I bound off the second glove. Next time I'm dividing my ball in half! That was waaaaay more stress as I was finishing than I'd like!

These now live in the control room at work. The temperature in there is erratic at best and it can get quite cold. I tend to be fine with it but I'm a cold loving weirdo. Hats and jackets aren't unusual in there. I was watching people sitting on their hands to warm them up between segments so I decided to make these for everyone to share! They're incredibly soft and I'll probably make a pair for myself at some point.

They were also a very fast knit, just a couple days. It's always fun to have an FO so soon after starting! (that'd be a couple days at the end of October in case you were wondering)

These are the socks from the yarn that Keva dyed when we had our Kool Aid dying day. I finished them back in the middle of November.

Close up time!

The stats:
Needles: Size 0
Yarn: KP Bare
Pattern: Generic toe-up stockinette with a couple inches of 2x2 rib at the top
Sizing: 14sts/needle at the toe, increases to 34sts/needle for the foot, 7.75" 'till the heel, 8 wraps/side for the heel
SPI: 8.25

(note to self: 7.75" is a teensy bit too long, stay closer to 7.5")

The Mason Dixon Washcloth from the MDK book.

I followed the pattern from the book using size 8 needles and Sugar n'Cream in the Buttercream Ombre colorway. My first time doing bobbles, they weren't difficult, just kind of a pain. I knit most of this while watching the Survivor finale on the CBS website in my dad's office! It was while I was home in December for Christmas and Mom and Dad had company so I made myself scarce.

I made this as a present along with some handmade soap and I couldn't find an appropriate ribbon to sinch up the top. So I made about 20 inches of i-cord with the leftover yarn and voila! A tie! Worked quite well. I'm sure I'll do this again since it's fairly fast and it does make a great gift.

The colors are off in this shot, but it's the only one that shows the i-cord tie.

More socks! These are for me. I finished them during the family Christmas gathering on December 23rd. I don't remember when I started them, but I know I did a LOT of sock knitting on the plane home!

I hadn't ever worked with a yarn with elastic in it before, that was interesting. I like it quite a bit, but unfortunately this particular yarn has been discontinued and the only colorways left are ones that I don't care for. And honestly I'd like these a LOT if they didn't have the green and orange. They're still fun the way they are, but I'd like them better if it were just the pink, purple, yellow in there. I did a picot bind-off on these, but I didn't do any ribbing before I bound off. So the stockinette curls and it ends up looking like a rolled edge instead of a picot edge.

The stats:
Needle: size 0
Yarn: KP Dancing, Tap colorway
Pattern: generic toe-up, stockinette, picot bind-off
Sizing: 14sts/needle for the toe, increase to 30/needle, 6" 'till the heel, 7 wraps/side for the heel
SPI: 7

note to self: next time you use an elastic yarn, make the sock smaller than normal!

It's my first My So-Called Scarf!

I started out knitting this on 11's like the pattern says, but it seemed kind of tight so I switched to 13's (I don't think I have any 12's for some reason) and those gave me a fabric I liked a lot better. Once I got the hang of how to manipulate the stitches I enjoyed knitting this. And each row is pretty much the same so there wasn't a lot to remember which is nice.

The yarn I used was from my aunt. She wanted me to make her socks and my standard response is "buy me yarn, I'll make you socks." She picked out some yarn and sent it my way, it was rather too thick though so I found sock yarn in similar colors for her socks and decided to use this yarn for something else. This yarn would be two skeins of Lion Brand Jiffy in colorway #325 El Paso.

I finished it January 12th after about a week of working on it and then mailed it off to the Red Scarf Project.

The colors are more accurate in the... Close up!

These are the socks I made for my aunt. I thought the colors matched well with the yarn she sent me. For some reason, even though the two balls I used were from the same dye-lot they seem to have different color repeats, which I find interesting and a tad confusing! It was a little bit scratchy to knit, but the socks don't feel scratchy to me and I'd be willing to bed that they'll soften after they're washed.

They took about 2 weeks to finish, ending on January 23rd and I really need to mail them so my aunt can enjoy them! They are for her after all.

The stats:
Needles: size 0
Yarn: Gedifra Fashion Trend Sportivo, colorway #5712
Pattern: generic toe up, 3x1 rib at the top, sewn bind-off
Sizing: 12sts/needle for toe, increase to 32/needle, 8" until heel, 8 wraps/side for the heel
SPI: 8

Miss Lime mentioned this yarn a couple podcasts ago. As she said, even though it's called the "Oregon Ducks" colorway, it's just about the perfect Packers colors. My best friend happens to love the Packers. How could I resist this yarn then? It's DK weight yarn which I don't think I've ever used for socks. I used Lorna's for my first pair and have pretty much stuck with the skinny sock yarns ever since. The knitting sure went a lot faster with the thicker yarn! They took maybe 4 days to finish and that's really fast for me. (Finished around January 28th)

This stuff is wonderfully soft! My only complaint is that some of the green came off on my needles (and my fingers!) Not a ton, just enough to make it annoying. But oh well, the end result is really soft and yummy and pretty so I'm ok with a little green here and there!

The stats:
Needles: Size 1
Yarn: Fancy Image Yarn, Oregon Ducks colorway
Pattern: generic toe-up, about an inch of 2x2 rib at the top, picot bind-off
Sizing: 10sts/needle for the toe, increase to 26sts/needle, 7.5" until the heel, 6 wraps/side

It's my first clothing item that isn't either a rectangle or a sock! I worked on this pretty much exclusively (which is pretty rare, I'm usually doing multiple projects at once) for the first couple weeks of December.

I started with the basic construction of a Stahman Faroese shawl, but instead of lace I stuck cables all over it. The neck band is a simple little 4 stitch wide cable, then that follows all the way down both sides and eventually across the bottom of the finished shawl. There were a couple stitches worth of reverse stockinette on either side of the cable, the "outside" side was whipstitched down so the rope is the very outside edge of the finished product.

A little futzing in Excel and I came up with a chart for the dimensions and where the increases would go, and then I sketched cables. Lots and lots of cables. That part was incredibly fun, something about figuring out how to get them to fit where I wanted really appealed to my geeky little self. Once I had that all figured out I just followed the chart that I made. I did the chart backwards on one of the sides so that the cables mirror each other from the right to the left.

When I was starting this I decided to figure out the "cabling with a cable needle" thing. I am very glad that I did! That made this go a lot faster. I also completely fell in love with cables while knitting this. I like the way they look, I like knitting them, I like figuring them out and creating them from knotwork... they just plain old make me happy!

I used Cascade 220 in colorway #9456 which is a pretty heathery blue, and a size 8 circular needle. This used about 5 and a half skeins.

More socks! What can I say? I like making socks! Elann had a sale a month or so ago for a bag of 10 balls of this yarn for 20 bucks. How can you resist that? So I found a bag that had a colorway I liked and a colorway that Keva liked. Since I was buying it regardless I figured I'd make sure someone else liked the colors so I wouldn't have 5 identical pairs of socks! So these are for Keva.

This wasn't one of my favorite yarns ever to knit. It's not uncomfortable to knit or anything like that, it's just very string-like. It is 75% wool, but it has very little give and just about zero sproing factor. But it was really cheap so I'm not complaining!

I wanted to do little bitty picots across the top, but when I did picots by casting on one and then binding off 3, it did give me subtle little picot bumps, but the edge was really un-stretchy. So I decided to try the other method of picots. So after the inch of rib at the top I did a row of *yo, k2tog*. Since I had issues with the sewing down portion last time I did this I knit a good inch of stockinette to fold down inside the sock. That worked a LOT better. Having that extra fabric to work with made it not flare out weirdly. So yay!

These were started January 23 and finished February 11.

Close up!

The stats:
Needles: Size 0
Yarn: Elann Sock it to Me Puzzle, color #717
Pattern: generic toe-up, inch of 2x2 rib, picot bind-off (yo, k2tog method, inch of selvage)
Sizing: 14sts/needle for toe, increase to 30/needle, 7.5" till the heel, 7 wraps per side on the heel
SPI: 7.5

Yay! I finally finished another pair of socks! Patterned socks seem to take me forever. I can blaze through generic ones in no time, but make me follow a pattern and I knit like a snail. This wasn't even a difficult pattern! Quite straightforward and enjoyable, it just makes me pokey for some reason.

Anyway! These are Monkey from Knitty. The pattern is written top down, so of course I had to screw with it and make it toe-up. The first thing I tried was just flipping the little chart upside down. That didn't work. I'm sure there's a way to make something that looks the same as the top-down version, but I didn't really want to work at it that hard. So the pattern on my socks is upside down.

I usually use a short-row heel, but in this case I thought the Widdershins heel (also from knitty) would work better. Short-row heels are my favorite, but at the moment the Widdershins heel is running a very close second. I've never had an issue with having to pick up extra stitches or weird holes, it's a very nice heel! And I think I finally have the math of it down so it should be pretty easy to use it whenever I want from now on.

So, starting at the toe... the pattern is 16 stitches wide, so two repeats across the top of the foot and then stockinette on the bottom. I did 3 full pattern repeats going up the foot, plus 6 rows, then started the gusset for the heel. At that point it's just a matter of keeping track of both which row of the heel you're on and which row of the pattern. The pattern page I printed out has little hash marks all over it! But it worked! Once the heel was finished I brought the pattern all the way around the leg. If I were to do this again I would send the pattern down the heel flap. I wasn't sure of my math and didn't want to have to frog back so I did a plain stockinette heel. But I'm pretty confident at this point that I have a handle on how the heel works so I should be able to do that in any future socks!

The pattern called for 6 repeats up the leg and I did that followed by 10 rows of 1x1 twisted rib and an EZ sewn bind-off. At any rate, the leg goes up higher than I usually have my socks go and the top repeat or so are a tad tight, not enough that it's going to bug me wearing them, but enough that it kind of distorts the pattern. I'm thinking either going up a needle size for that last repeat or else adding a couple stitches would fix that.

I used Lorna's Laces and loved it. It's so soft and sproingy. I had used Lorna's before (for my very first pair of socks) but I think because I had zero sock knitting experience at that point I didn't really appreciate the yarn. Now I know that I love it. And her colors are so beautiful!

And finally... heel close up!

The Stats...
Needles: Size 0
Yarn: Lorna's Laces in Purple Club
Pattern: Monkey from Knitty, toe-up, Widdershins heel.
Sizing: 14/needle for the toe, up to 32/needle, 5" until heel (Widdershins)
SPI: 8 (in stockinette)
Started: 2-12-2007
Finished: 3-17-2007