Small project dud
Over the last few weeks I've had small projects on the brain, namely small projects that take up a sock's worth of yarn . . . because I happen to have LOTS OF socks-worth-of-yarn amounts, and a bursting sock drawer. Over the summer lots of bloggers were making cowls using sock yarn so I thought that was an appropriate way to go, but I started with a lone skein of Colinette Cadenza that was sitting in the stash without a mate instead of jumping into the prized sock yarn stash.
For my little experiment I decided to "stretch" the feather and fan pattern to see what it might look like if it were less wavy, and quite liked what I saw:
One day's worth of knitting and I'd reached the end of the ball . . . unfortunately the cowl wasn't actually DONE, even thought the yarn was:
(yes, I'm much too short)
So, now we know that one skein of Colinette Cadenza does not a cowl make. Please take my experience and use it to avoid such a non-project in your future. Thanks.
Not to be deterred, I started over again with some random Kersti that also lived in my stash, but this time I knew I had 3 balls hidden somewhere (of course I can only find 2 of them at the moment). I did the exact same thing on the exact same needles, and 2 skeins gave me a perfect cowl. When I get it photographed well and write up the super-simple instructions I will post it, promise! Hopefully that will happen this weekend. It's about time for a new pattern out of me, and even a simple one will do! Everyone likes a free pattern anyway, right?
FO-a-day, Day 2: Margarita Socks
Quite possibly the fastest socks I've ever knit!
The stripes didn't line up very well on the second sock, it seems that the repeat was a little shorter on the second sock than on the first so the stripes aren't the same. This is most visible around the heel, you can see in this picture that there is a lot of purple around the ankle of the right sock but not as much on the left sock. I'm ok with this, though, socks do not have to be perfect in my world!
If you want to knit these socks, here's what I did:
- Knit toe-up socks with fingering weight yarn, with whatever stitch count you want, then after turning the heel knit 6 rows while increasing/decreasing to a stitch count of 66.
- Pattern row: * K2tog 2 times, (YO, K1) 3 times, YO, K2tog 2 times, repeat from * 10 times more.
- Knit 3 rows. Repeat last 4 rows until socks are desired length. Make sure to bind off on what would have been a knit row, not on the pattern row.
That's it! So simple I couldn't justify working it up into a "pattern".
By the way, this yarn goes FOREVER. I have tons left over, easily enough to make knee-highs. I am kind of shocked at how much is left over! And as Dave pointed out in a comment last time I talked about these socks, Twisted Fibers now sells their yarn from their own website, www.twistedfiberart.com -- I think I need to get some more!
Project specs:
Pattern: Toe up socks, figure 8 cast on and feather and fan legs
Yarn: Much less than 1 skein Twisted Fiber Arial in color Guardian
Needles: US size 1
Started: April 26, 2008
Finished: May 3, 2008
BRIGHT Bright Sock!
I am still not feeling 100% but I'm definitely better . . . I actually got tons of stuff done this weekend, including cleaning, finishing a few long-overdue FOs (stay tuned for photos of my Katherine Hepburn and the Koigu ruffle socks!) and starting one new project. BRIGHT socks:
(have to brag: this picture is a perfect representation of this sock!! Shock of all shocks!)
I thought it might be ugly while I was knitting it, but somehow putting it on changed the way it looks! I now LOVE IT, and it makes me smile just looking at this picture. The colors were yelling "Mexico!" to me so I am thinking of these as my Margarita socks (coincidentally my favorite drink, although most Mexicans never drink them), so it make me want to spice them up a bit, hence the stitch pattern on the leg.
This is yet another toe-up sock. I think it might be time to admit that I've been converted. Never say never.
I did more increases before the heel on this sock and that's definitely better, but you can see from this picture there is still a decent amount of stretching out so in the next pair I will do even more increases. I am so happy I decided to try this weird gusset, the idea of being able to make socks this easily is really appealing!! I had stayed away from toe-up short row socks because of the fit at the instep, but now that I've figured out a way around that . . . well, now you know why I can admit to being converted!
After the socks decided to evoke Mexico for me I thought I needed to add a little sizzle to make them more Senorita-like (forgive the lack of squiggle above the N) -- so I gave them a modified feather-and-fan leg, using only 11 stitches in each pattern repeat. I think it works really well with the colors!
Speaking of which, this is new-to-me yarn bought via Etsy. This is Twisted Fibers Arial sock yarn in the Guardian colorway. It feels a lot like Sunshine yarn's Soft base yarn or Yarntini's base, which is to say it doesn't have that crisp, tightly-twisted texture you expect from yarns like Koigu and STR. It also appears to be a tiny bit thinner than other sock yarns, but I was able to knit the foot on my usual 60 sts so it didn't make any difference. I like how it feels on the foot and how it knits up, and will be keeping my eye on the store to grab some more when it becomes available! I already have my eye on that Warlock colorway that's their banner . . .
