Pattern: Socks for Veronik, from the Interweave Knits Holiday ‘07 issue
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, color Firefly

These socks certainly brighten up the dreary days around here! We don’t really get much of a winter in Houston, but the city is trying it’s best with two solid weeks of grey and drizzle. I don’t mind the gloomy weather, it gives me the rare opportunity to get some wear out of all my handknits.

Lest you think I’m always lounging about in pointy shoes and handknit socks…

The reality is that I’m working from home in my pj’s. I do like the blue, white, and yellow combo, though!

These are my first continental project and they turned out pretty well! The sole of the sock has some tension issues, but those will probably even out with wear. I followed the pattern exactly which gives you a fairly long leg in the sock. If I were to knit these again, I’d shorten them by a pattern repeat or two. The small garter edge looks pretty, but doesn’t do much to hold up the sock when faced with my generously sized calves.

This is my first time working with Lorna’s Laces for a whole project – I’ve swatched a variegated colorway of the Shepherd Sock and swapped it away because it pooled so badly. Yellow’s never my first choice, colorwise, but I’ve warmed up to it quite a bit. The yarn itself was wonderful to work with and I’d definitely use it again. I wish I could buy the semisolid colorways locally.

I realized recently that I have exactly 12 skeins of sock yarn in my stash. If I knit a sock a month, I’ll be sock yarn stashless by the end of the year, and that sounds fabulous to me.

I’m getting a jump on February’s pair – a Child’s First Sock in some Yarn Botanika merino/tencel yarn. I’ve loved this pattern since forever and I’m excited to knit these up! Shhhh, don’t tell my unfinished objects about this one.

Rob and I are going to visit the family this weekend, so this will be the perfect travel project. I’m rushing to finish the Tangled Yoke today – it’s very close to completion, and I’m determined to get some wear out of it!

It turns out, when you’re working on trying to finish 6 things at once, nothing really gets done. So here are a couple of projects that have been in the works for a while, but haven’t seen any blog time.

This is the start of a second Sock for Veronik, from the Interweave Knits Holiday issue. I received the first sock from Erin in a swap last fall, and I’m finally getting around to knitting the other one now. This is a photo from last week – I’ve turned the heel and I’m at the final foot stretch right now. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces in the Firefly colorway.

This is my first fully continentally-knit project. I’ve been meaning to switch to continental knitting because of it’s speed for a while now, but this swap has given me the motivation to finally do so. Erin knit the sock on size 1 needles, and my english-knitting gauge would have been way too tight for that needle size. Since my continental knitting is looser, I figured that I could get away with the size 1’s without swatching. So far, that’s working well.

I’m actually knitting this sock combined, which means that the purls are wrapped the opposite way. This is a much more (to me) fluid movement than normal continental purling, and it supposedly improves your tension. However, the combined knitting is causing me to have the most awful knitting tension, ever. I never had issues with rowing-out when I knit english-style, but the difference between my knit and purl rows were glaringly obvious when I worked the stockinette heel of this sock. It turns out that my combined purling technique brings forward so little yarn that the loops are much tighter than my continental knit stitches. I have to purl extremely loosely, while knitting very tightly, to get even tension. It’s actually pretty difficult for me to remember to purl that loosely when knitting mindless stockinette.

So! The plan is to do some major swatching with regular old continental purling and see how that works out.

This was supposed to be a Christmas gift for Rob’s dad. Cancelling our trip gave me such a relief for this one – there was no way that it would have been done in time. Rob’s family has a house in a rural area, and everyone dons hunter’s orange when the hunters are a hunting. I’ve been meaning to knit Rob’s dad an orange, reindeer hat for a couple of years, and the second I saw Norah Gaughan’s Intricate Stag Bag pattern, I knew I wanted to hat-ify it.

I was on the prowl for the perfect searing orange yarn, and Jet pointed out the perfect skein when she was in town in October. Literally – we were in a yarn store and I was telling her about my plight for the perfect yarn, and she pointed out the perfect skein! The orange is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Tangerine, and the grey is Dale of Norway Baby Ull. I’m knitting this on US 2 needles, and the hat is two pattern repeats of the 92 stitch pattern. I fiddled with the chart to make it fit my gauge by moving the trees away from the deer by a few stitches and adding a third tree.

The hat looks pretty much the same right now. I finished knitting the crown, but frogged it all back to this point. My floats were very large in the crown, above the deer’s horns and top of the middle tree. I’m not weaving the black behind the orange because it’s a bit thicker and it shows, and the black stitches were extremely loose. I might duplicate stitch the tops of the two taller trees. Is that totally cheating? Will I be kicked out of the Fair Isle club?

Here’s a look back at ‘07 in kelp! knits land, thanks to Knitlit Kate’s idea. Almost a week late, but that’s the way things roll around here.

(2007 finished knits – I feel that there should be more, given all the knitting I do!
1. Scarves, 2. Utopia Hat, 3. Stockinette Socks, 4. Nephew hat and mittens, 5. Endpaper Mitts, 6. Ironwork Sock, 7. Mad Color Weave, 8. Ol’ Stripey, 9. Ironwork Socks, 10 and 11. Garnstudio Baby Jacket and Saartje’s booties, 12. Spring Things shawl, 13. Airy Wrap Around Lace Sweater, 14. Dotty Cat Bed, 15. Sarcelle detail, 16. Asymmetrical Cardigan)

1. Your best FO of the year

Is it totally self-centered to say the Ironwork Socks? I still heart them and I’d really love to knit a pair for myself some day.

2. Best FO of the year made by a blog you link to

I’m a sucker for the cute, so I’ll say Pam’s froggy hat. Awwww!

3. Best yarn you tried

Nature’s Palette sock yarn. I adore the colors so much, I’ll definitely buy it again. I also really love the fiber composition of Brooks Farm Four Play, although I’m not as in love with the variegated colorways.

4. Best new book/mag/pattern of 2007

I recently rediscovered the Natural Knitter book on my shelf. I don’t love it so much for the patterns, but the book itself is absolutely beautiful, and I really enjoy reading the yarn company profiles.

I must say that 2007 is the year that I’ve learned not to buy knitting books sight-unseen. I feel extremely meh about both Fitted Knits and Lace Style, and I’ll be destashing them this year.

5. Best new knitting technique or gadget you tried in 2007

I finally figured out how to do a provisional cast on using a crochet hook. It saves so much time and twisting when you’re casting on a large number of stitches (Tangled Yoke’s yoke had 300+ stitches, the Stag hat below was almost 200).

(2007 in stitches – lots of straight lines and gifts, but it was great to dust off the old Kenmore 8 after years of nonuse. I’m too lazy to list these individually, so you can clicky on the pic to see what’s what.)

6. Top 5 inspirations–what five things inspired you the most over the past year?

One of my fave things about the big R is finding people’s innovative variations of patterns. A few quick examples from my faves list: Emilee’s fitted Glasgow Pullover (which is definitely in my queue), a Venezia knit with Noro sock yarn (love that idea!), a not-so-Little Smocked Cardigan, a fitted Sand Dollar pullover, and a Sunflower Hat.

7. Designer who most amazed & inspired you throughout the year

Norah Gaughan, hands down. She’s so creative, and I love so many of her designs. I’ll be knitting a few more things from Knitting Nature this coming year.

8. Knitting resolutions for 2008–what’s next for you and your blog?

First up, finishing all the UFO’s.

The orange thing hasn’t even been blogged yet – it’s the last of the FO fury projects, a hat for Rob’s dad. And yikes, the clutch and robot were on last year’s list! I get easily stalled at mistakes and finishing details, which is something I need to work on.

After that, 2008 is going to be the year of the sweater. I have so much sweater yarn, and I need to start knitting through it. I’m also planning on more sewing, hopefully a quilt is in my future!