Way back in February I decided to knit a pair of socks for each month in 2008. I felt that my sock yarn stash was getting entirely out of control and I had just enough skeins to knit 12 pairs of socks.

Well, it’s almost the end of the year and I’m pleased to report that I’m DONE! 12 pairs, finished, ends woven in, mostly blogged. Before we get to the celebration, here’s pair number 12:

Pattern: Spring Forward, Knitty 2008
Yarn: Zen Yarn Garden Bamboolicious in Chocoplum

Yay! Done! These were supposed to be for me, but they turned out a bit small because when I try to “knit loosely”, it never works. They’re going to my mother in law.

The pattern: pretty, but ok in general. I closed my eyes tightly and ignored the fact that the ribbing doesn’t blend into the pattern in any way. I also made the socks symmetrical by starting the second sock on row 12. This is such an easy thing to do that makes the pair look even better!

Ok, time for a sock party!

WOO!

YEAH!

SOCKS!

Statistics:

• One pair is knit with my handspun
• Two pairs are gifts: Marina Piccola and Spring Forward
• Three pairs are designs that were published in Knotions and Knitty: Oak Leaf Socks, Interlocking Leaves, and Hanging Vines
• Eight pairs are lace (well, involve yos)
• Eleven pairs are textured

So did I achieve my original goal, sock yarn reduction? Um, no.

Twelve pairs of sock yarn, all ready for 2009! Just kidding, I’m so very over socks. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to stop knitting them, as they’re the perfect portable project, but somehow I got over that all to easily. I have swatched the blue Wollmeise for a friend, but I’m in no rush to get started. I have a new, epic project waiting in the wings. For next time, sock lovers!

Pattern: Kinetic by Norah Gaughan (on ravelry)
Yarn: Malabrigo merino worsted in Azul Profundo

Poor Rob’s only scarf is my very first knitting project – a two-by-two rib scarf that looks like it’s been around the block. I decided that I needed to remedy this and was on the search for the perfect manscarf. Enter Kinetic, the perfect manscarf!

I really enjoyed knitting this pattern. Large charts don’t frighten me, especially easy knit-purl ones. I used highlighter tape to keep track of my place which worked out perfectly. The pattern as written is more of a shawl, but I only worked the 36 stitch repeat section (plus two garter stitches on each side).

The best thing about the pattern? The wrong side looks pretty damn nice, too. The photo of me wearing the scarf shows both sides – wrong side on the left, right side on the right.

Pattern: Mistake Rib, baby! (on ravelry)
Yarn: Bertagna Filati Perla (the blue), Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran

The bonus is a simple mistake rib scarf for me that I knit over the summer but it never saw any blog time. I’ve been wanting a striped, mistake rib scarf ever since I made the red one a couple of years ago. I did a big stash reorganization (big because my stash! it is too large) and found the perfect yarns for this scarf.

The yarns are similar in weight but couldn’t be more different. The Italian yarn is a highly cabled yarn with a lot of sheen, while the Jo Sharp is a smooshy two ply that’s quite matte. I think that they make an interesting pair, although if anyone else notices then they’re probably standing entirely too close to me!

The scarf is a bit on the short side because each ball of yarn was less than 100 yards (I had two balls of each). Whatever, it’s still pretty and it just happens to match my Target Wave mittens. I am nothing if not predictable, apparently!

It’s the “winter” season here in TX, so time for some fall accessories! We can also call this the blog post about old knits, because two of these were finished ages ago.

Pattern: Trinity Stitch Hat from Craftster
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpaca Hand Dyed Cotton

I started this hat about a year ago using Manos. Imagine my disappointment when I ran out of yarn before I finished the damn thing! I’m too stubborn to buy another skein of spendy yarn for a handful of yards, so I reknit it in the Blue Sky cotton that’s been hanging out in my stash for a while.

I finished this poor hat so long ago that I barely remember the details. I think it involved p3togs? And I changed the stitch count? Everything is fuzzy at this point. Either way, I think it’s pretty and smooshy even though the ribbing is too loose.

Pattern: Selbu Modern by Kate Gagnon
Yarn: Hand Jive Nature’s Palette in Odd Duck #4 (MC), Tess Designer Yarns Super Sock and Baby (CC)

LOVE THIS PATTERN.

That’s all.

Ok, there’s a bit more – I went up two needle sizes based on the notes on ravelry, which means the ribbing is way too loose but the rest of the hat is only a little loose. I think I look quite silly in hats, but I may actually wear this one out of the house once I attack the ribbing with some elastic.

One more thing – most of the light blue was leftover from my Endpaper Mitts. Score!

Pattern: Cashmere Cowl No. 2 – Lace Rib from Purl Soho
Yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool in Ocean, held double

Ah, the bonus cowl. I knit this last spring when the cowl rage was happening. I’m kind of on the fence about cowls. I get them and think they can look cute, but if I’m cold I probably need more than a loose tube with gigantic holes in it to keep my neck warm. I might just stick with my old standby, the scarf. It’s not like I don’t have a zillion scarves hanging around competing for my neck’s time!

The yarn is fan-freaking-tastic, though. I swatched a lace pattern with it a while ago, and just might end up axing this cowl for a mini Shetland Triangle, which was my original plan for it.

I held the yarn double in knitting this and used size 9 needles. I think. I know I used way less repeats than the pattern called for because I wanted a snugger fit. I haven’t blocked this yet because I’m a bit afraid it’s going to get all loose and drapey on me.

Knotions launched last weekend and I have a little green pattern in it:

Hanging Vines socks! These might just be my favorites of the three recent sock designs (Oak Leaf and Interlocking Leaves were the other two). They were inspired by the ooodles of jasmine growing along the fence in our backyard. The leaves are long gone, but the vines stay nice and green all year long.

I ripped and reknit the cuff seemingly endless times. I was damn sure to make sure it was perfect before continuing on, because I wasn’t going to do any crazy chop-and-graft action again. I’m still having nightmares about unpicking all those stitches!

The yarn was dyed by Roxanne of Zen Yarn Garden. It’s such a great yellowish green – my photos definitely do not do it justice. Louet is the base yarn, and I really like working with it – it’s the perfect weight for socks and has a nice plump twist.

The only thing I’m unhappy with about these is the photos. I took a boatload of pictures in our backyard near the jasmine, but the lighting was horrible back there and you couldn’t make out the stitch pattern. I resigned myself to doing a photoshoot on our porch, which is where I photographed the Ironwork Socks. The pattern name makes more sense if you look at the socks when the cuff is at the top of the frame – the leaves are actually hanging then, and I think they look even better that way!

This is the last of the sock designs, because I have finished my 12th pair of the sock-a-month plan and am very, very done with socks for now! Socks, you are old news! Berets? Now that’s where it’s at. Even if I look silly in hats. More news next time, dear blog.

The Oak Leaf Socks pattern (originally appearing in Knotions) has been translated to German! Thanks to Andrea (kaita on Ravelry) for doing all the work of translating the pattern!

You can download the German translation here (pdf). Enjoy!

Socktoberfest is over, so it’s finally time to catch up on all the socks I’ve been knitting. These are pairs 8 through 11 of my grand sock-a-month-plan, and I’m almost done with the last pair. Finally! No more socks! I’ll be very happy when the sock knitting is complete.

Pattern: Gentleman’s Fancy Sock from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Knitterly Things Vesper Sock Yarn in Crew

I originally omitted the calf shaping, but it was working up too small so I added it back in. It’s so nice to be able to follow a pattern verbatim for once!

There’s only one knit row between rib blocks. Also, I worked the rib blocks for two stripe color changes. Also also, I worked an afterthought heel and did my own thing for the toe shaping.

Pattern: Anna’s Socks by Kirsten Kapur
Yarn: Piece of Beauty Sock Yarn in October Day

I think these are a perfect combo of yarn + pattern! The pattern chart is pretty simple, yet I love the way it looks.

My gauge was smaller than the pattern’s (and I have large feet), so I modified the stitch pattern to be wider along the front and back (I think one extra repeat?) with less ribbing on the sides. I also extended the stitch pattern all the way to the toe.

Pattern: Marina Piccola by Kate Gilbert
Yarn: Knitpicks Essential. I overdyed the grass green skeins with a bluish green.

Overall, I love the way the pattern looks! I did have a few wee issues with it:

In half the sizes the ribbing doesn’t match up with the pattern. I did a bunch of increasing and decreasing to make the ribbing flow into the waves of the pattern. This is only an issue in sizes where you’re working an even number of stitches between pattern repeats.

The pattern comes with a great chart on which side to select based on your gauge and foot size. However, these socks are definitely on the snuuuug size (and I definitely knit a swatch!). I’d go up a pattern size if I knit this pattern again.

I had some tension issues – the left side of each stockinette section (the ssk and regular m1 side) is much looser than the right side. I think that ssks are out to get me. These socks haven’t been blocked yet – maybe the magic of blocking with solve everything?

These were supposed to be a gift for my mother in law, but my 12th pair of socks is a bit to small, so she’ll be getting those. The heel flap on these is pretty short, and I’ve learned from all this sock knitting that I have a huge instep, so I should really frog back to the heel flap and make it taller. The thought of ripping this pattern that I knit on size 1 needles and that I’m oh-so-very over pains me greatly. So we’re going to go ahead and call them finished for now.

These are a little preview of my design for the winter issue of Knotions! The issue looks awesome overall, Jody did a fabulous job putting it together. You can queue these up on Ravelry now – I’ll post more when the pattern comes out next week.

It seems like I’m beginning every post these days (er, months) with a statement of how long it’s been since last time I posted. So now that those formalities are out of the way, hi! We survived the hurricane! Which happened last month! We were very, very lucky – we only lost power for a couple of days, and we had minimal damage to the house. Losing power sucks, but the cat vs dog interactions in our house during that time kept us entertained.

Silver had our friend’s dog cornered at one point and took over his bed the next day. Good girl, Silver. Make him work for that bed!

I’ve been doing lots of knits and purls lately, hence the blog update. I have three pairs of socks to blog, but ugh, the blog and I were talking about this and we are sick! of! socks! So we’ll save that for a future post. I’m happily knitting away on my 12th pair of socks, my last for the year. One pair didn’t use yarn from my stash, which means they don’t really count (my whole purpose was to reduce the sock stash), but I’m beyond caring at this point!

I did start some non-footwear knits. Like a sweater!

This is Baby Cables and Big Ones, Too. Sweaters in the past have not been so successful for me, so I’m trying something different with this one. I’ve knit this for my high-bust measurement so far, and once I split off the arms, I’ll increase a bunch for my bust, then do waist shaping as normal. Will this work? Hopefully! This hasn’t been completely smooth sailing, unfortunately:

I’ve also been doing some craft room/study/spare bedroom organization. This room has been a dumping ground for crap, so I bought a bookcase with doors and have been organizing all my fabric and study stuff in it. I even reserved a small shelf for some yarn.

Like handspun! This almost makes me want to start spinning again. I haven’t touched the wheel in months.

I have big plans for some cool weather accessories, even though it’s still 85 and sunny here. Hate you, Houston!

Hi blog! It’s been a while, but you know how that goes. I’ve been super swamped with work and we’re “sheltering in place” in preparation for hurricane Ike (we’re in central Houston, so no worries – we’re pretty safely out of harm’s way). I’m dropping in all quick like and tell you about these socks.

A few months ago we made the Squares for Sharron blanket. One of my squares had a stitch pattern that I fell in love with, so I sockified it and made these:

The Interlocking Leaves socks are available in Knitty, Fall 2008!

They’re worked toe-up in one my favorite sock yarns – Tess Super Socks and Baby. Yummy yummy stuff. I worked a toe-up heel flap, sort of Widdershins-esque, but a bit different (more true to top-down construction) in the heel turn. And of course they have an Eye of Partridge heel flap, as is my way!

I hope you like them! I’m still working my way towards the sock-a-month plan, and these are August’s socks, even though I knit them in May and I’m blogging them in September. I haven’t yet blogged July’s socks yet, but the next post will talk about those and September’s pair. I’m on a roll!

Hi! It is hot out. So I’ve been knitting socks!

First off, the Oak Leaf Socks!

The premiere issue of Knotions came out last Monday, and I was lucky enough to have this pair of socks included. Jody did a rocking job with the magazine (I totally understand how much work goes in to creating something like that from scratch) and there’s plenty of interesting patterns to knit. I have my eyes on Theodore for Rob, but I’m a bit short on yarn. Maybe I’ll make a skinnier version. I have some handspun that would be perfect for a manscarf.

Back to the Oak Leaf socks. I really love the zigzag line that happens when you alternate k2tog, yo and yo, ssk. A bit of swatching and travelling stitches led me to the leaves. The pattern includes a pretty transition from the mostly-purl stitch pattern to the knit stitch appearance of the eye of partridge heel. If you like how that looks, you can mirror it in the toe. I didn’t include instructions for handling this in the toe because it would have added a lot of complexity to the pattern (since the sock length can vary).

The socks are knit in Nature’s Palette sock yarn, in the Mallard colorway. I love this yarn. It’s soft and plump and this particular colorway is gorgeous – it very subtly variegates between grass and olive green. I also used this yarn in my Endpaper Mitts, and I just bought more for another pair of socks.

I’ve been slowly catching up to my sock-a-month plan this year. Let’s call these the May socks, since they were actually knit that month.

June’s socks:

Pattern: Marilinda socks
Yarn: Valley Yarns Huntington

I’ve been interested in all of the new yarns appearing in the Valley Yarns line. I used to live thisclose to Webs and tried the Longmeadow yarn at the time, but ended up destashing it because I really didn’t like the texture. The Huntington is a basic non-smooshy sock yarn. It’s 25% nylon but is very soft – it definitely doesn’t have the nylony scratchiness that I’ve been experiencing in recent yarns. It’s a bit splitty, which is most noticeable if you drop a stitch or are cabling without a cable needle.

I’ve been wanting to knit the Marilinda socks since they came out. The pattern is deceptively easy – all of the action (travelling stitches changing directions, cable cross) happens in the same row. I did make a couple of small changes, the most major of which is that I changed the double decreases. The pattern has double decreases where the center stitch is on top, but that center stitch is a purl background stitch that suddenly becomes a knit stitch. I think that changing those stitches to a k3tog on the right half of the chart and sssk on the left is a bit prettier.

One small thing to watch out for with this pattern is that the sizing runs very large. The pattern is worked over 75 stitches in the leg and there’s very little to pull in the pattern – only one four-stitch cable every 14 rows. I had a smaller gauge than the pattern (8.5 sts/in vs the pattern’s 8sts/in) and the sock fits my size 10 foot (9 inch circumference) and large calves perfectly – the pattern as written would have been way too large. Besides that, I’m very happy with the way that these socks turned out!