I always thought that sock blockers were such a frivolous purchase, but I’m the first to borrow a pair when I have a too-small sock that needs some lace stretching in order to be attractive.

Another Ironwork Sock is done! Hoo, boy, am I glad I’m only knitting one of these. Dare I say that I now have this pattern memorized? I promise, I’ll only use my powers for good! I used Spirit Trail sock yarn that I purchased at MDSW for this, and I love it! It’s twisty and squishy and good.

Speaking of delicious…

Please stand out of my way while I tear apart the pretty packaging, rawr!

The Wollmeise yarn finally arrived! Roll call!

Dornroschen - medium.
Brombeere - dark.
Poison #5 - dark.
Veilchen - medium.
Gewitterhimmel - dark.
Tiefer See - medium.
Farn - dark.

Only the Brombeere and Gewitterhimmel are mine. I’ll be passing the rest off to their rightful owners this week. Maybe. Just kidding, girls, you’ll get your yarn!

I leave you with one last photo of the pretty.

This blogging once a week thing is sort of lame, but for some reason my knitting has been progressing at a glacial pace. So a quick roundup:

I started another Ironwork Sock, for a gift.

I’m using the Spirit Trail sock yarn that I purchased at MDSW this year. I’m really liking the yarn, although it’s a bit more semi than solid, so it’s probably not the best match for the pattern. I’m pressing on, as I was determined to knit this from stash! I was planning on knitting a billion different sock patterns, but that evil mistress gauge had different plans for me.

I’m actually very happy that I’m knitting another of these because I’ve uncovered a couple of errors in the pattern. Ugh and apologies to all that run into the errors! I’m putting the errata on the pattern page, so you should definitely check it out if you have purchased the pattern. I’m learning a bit about this pattern writing process and I’ll definitely test knit changes I make in future patterns, especially with items as small as socks.

Tangled Yoke is starting to look like a sweater. Since I’m knitting the body top-down, I investigated bind off alternatives to make the bottom edge pretty and stretchy.

I’m a tubular bind off master now, thanks to Silver’s help.

Speaking of cats (do you like that segue?), say farewell to Jet Li!

He found his new home this past weekend! All five kittens have new homes, and I couldn’t be more excited. We thought we’d have Jet and Bruce for much longer - apparently, people aren’t too keen on adopting black kittens. The mobile adoption place seemed like a good idea in theory, but none of the kittens were adopted through it - we lucked out to find friends, friends-of-friends, and neighbors-of-friends-of-friends who adopted all of these guys. We’re going to miss having the kittens around, but I’m happy that we found good long-term homes for them!

Finally, finally, finally! The Ironwork Socks pattern is finished!

The pattern is offered in three sizes (corresponding to cast on amounts of 64, 72, and 80 stitches) but will work with a wide range of foot measurements and stitch gauges:

I erred on the large side for sock measurement to size conversion - the stitch pattern has a similar gauge as stockinette, but a bit less stretch because of the traveling stitches.

I would consider this an intermediate to advanced pattern, as an understanding of knitting charts is required. The pattern contains three charts for each size, one each for the leg, heel, and instep. There are clear instructions on all of the chart symbols and written instructions for the heel turn, gusset, and toe sections.

You can buy it here:

You’ll need a paypal account in order to buy the pattern. After you purchase the pattern you’ll get an email from e-junkie with a download link to the file. The e-junkie email will go to the primary email address on your paypal account.

Special thanks to all the test knitters for this pattern! There are even a few single socks out and about - be sure to check out Naiad Kitty and Pikku Kettu’s completed socks.

Ironwork Socks Errata

Please contact me (kelpknits at gmail dot com) if you would like me to update an expired download link.

• Fixed in Version 1.1 (10/19/07):
  - Heel Flap. Row 1 and Row 3 should be swapped.
  - Key. The second-to-bottom symbol should be, “Place one stitch on cable needle. Ktbl, ktbl. K stitch on cable needle.”
• Fixed in Version 1.2 (10/20/07):
  - Turn Heel. Row 1 should be, “Sl1, K17 [19, 21] sts, ssk, k1, turn.”
• Fixed in Version 1.3 (10/22/07)
  - Instep Chart - All sizes. The following stitches should be purl (rather than knit): column 2 and 32 [36, 40], rows 8-10. This isn’t an error per se, but I think the edge stitches look better this way.
• Fixed in Version 1.4 (10/24/07)
  - Instep Chart - Large. The following stitches should all be ssk (rather than k2tog): column 1, row 10 and 30; column 23, row 20 and 40.
• Fixed in Version 1.5 (10/28/07)
  - Key. The second-to-bottom symbol should really be, “Place one stitch on cable needle. Ktbl, ktbl. K stitch on cable needle.”
• Fixed in Version 1.6 (12/23/07)
  - Instep Chart - Medium. Row 33, stitch 26 and the k2togs above and to the right of it should all be ssk.

Finally, the Ironwork Socks charts are done! I’ve had my nose to the computer for the past week, finishing up the font and ironing out these charts. What a frustrating process.

Anyone want to test knit? There are three sizes, so it’s suitable for a range of foot sizes and yarn weights. I’m especially looking for anyone willing to knit the smallest size (over 64 sts) and the largest (80 sts). The pattern is mostly charted, with written instructions for the heel and toe action. If you’re interested, comment here or drop me an email at kelpknits at gmail dot com.

ETA: Ok, I think I’m set! I’ll get back to everyone tomorrow. Yay for the people in the internets!

Stick a fork in them! The pair looks much like the single sock photos, so let’s mix it up a bit with some shoes:

My normally nicely purple shoes look downright dull compared to the BLUE!

Pattern: My own, based off of a stitch pattern from a Japanese craft book
Yarn: Tess Super Sock and Baby

So this is my contribution to Sockpalooza 4. These socks were a bit of a collaborative effort - Stacey suggested the name, and the yarn was from Jess’s blog contest. Yay for the internets!

The sock pattern morphed a bit from the original swatch and I’m very pleased with the results. The pattern is forthcoming, I’m in the midst of font-editing to create the charts. I’m a novice chart creator, and I’ve realized that it’s quite a bit of work. I found a few knitting fonts online - a couple on the knittingsoftware yahoo group (which require conversion to macify them), and one from Knitter’s magazine which is very good.

I do need to add a couple of symbols that aren’t in the fonts, and I’ve downloaded Font Forge to help me out. The program is, um, hideous, but works on the mac. The general plan is to use Excel (well, Openoffice) to create the charts, following the instructions on Fleegle’s blog. Fingers crossed that this jumble of free resources will work!

Update: The pattern is finally available!

Since my camera wants desperately to wash out the blue, here’s a better photo of the texture:

The Tess yarn was really nice to work with, reasonably soft and smells delicious. It definitely has good springy sproing to it, just like my other fave socks yarns (Koigu!). There was some bleeding in the brief soak these socks got (the real blocking is to come once I replenish my wool wash), but nothing like the great Red Laceweight Bleed of ‘07. I would use this stuff again and I’m looking forward to digging into other Tess yarn I’ve got in my stash.

I still love the heels!

This is my second year participating in Sockpalooza, and I wasn’t as into it this year. I like reading about people’s progress on their blogs but I never really followed the digg-like pligg. I partially blame the interface (I’m not much of a digg follower, either), and partially on Ravelry, which surfaced around the same time and has all the pretty photos that the pligg lacks. Regardless, hopefully my sockpal digs these, and I can’t wait to see what I receive in the mail!

Are you sick of the blue yet? Because I sure am. I sort of finished the sockpalooza socks!

I wasn’t even going to blog about this, because Alert The Presses, Kelly Has Frogged Something For Some Anal Retentive Reason. The heel flap on sock one differed from both my notes and sock number two. Also, the foot edge patterning could best be described as assy. So, we ripped everything and all is well.

But! I was working on this at the doctor’s office this morning, and I lost! a! chart! I have three pieces of graph paper that I tote around, one for each chart, and the heel chart is probably still sitting in exam room 6. The heel chart is a bit of a pain to recreate and the sheet also contained all of my heel turning numbers. The socks are now officially fraternal twins. Sorry, sockpal.

I lost a bit of the sock love today. Silver still likes them, though.

Don’t let that cute exterior fool you - all she wants to do is eat that sock.

i feel like I was the only person around not holed up reading a certain book this weekend. Instead, I went to the Menil Collection and visited another Broken Obelisk.

Now I need to schedule a trip to Seattle to see the third obelisk.

Yesterday, I braved the 94-and-freaking-humid weather and some incredibly persistent mosquitoes to do a sock photoshoot.

Sockpalooza sock #1 is complete! I need to figure out a better name for it. I’m a terrible namer of things, when I’m allowed to pick names we end up with color coded cats and a plant named Droopy.

I’m knitting the second with an eye to writing up the pattern, but I do need to replicate my first sock mistakes (like one or two too many gusset decreases). I’m still a bit torn about handling different sizes - the easy way would be to call for different yarn weights and needle sizes, the harder would be to rechart everything. Recharting isn’t difficult per se, as I already have a larger leg chart completed, but it is pretty error prone. There are three charts for the sock - one each for the leg, heel, and foot pattern. They’re all basically displaying the same thing, with some minor changes for edge stitch treatments.

The heel is my favorite part:

There’s a pair of stockings in Handknit Holidays that has a similar pointy heel, and I love it so!

Hello! It is so Friday, and I am in serious need of a weekend. Rob and I are off to the Robparents for some serious R+R in… New Jersey. Woo. Gifting of the shawl will occur, and I’m hoping for a jaunt into NYC if we can spare the time. Rob asked me what I wanted to do in the city if we do go, and I had a list already prepared. Now, Purl or Habu? Decisions, decisions. Habu is pretty cool, but I’m not supposed to be buying yarn, remember? Fabric is fair game, though.

There will be plenty of hanging out and car trip time this weekend, so I’m bringing all sorts of crafty goodness.

Petal! I have two sleeves and two bottom borders complete, and I’ve started the back. I may leave this home to motivate myself to work on other projects.

I really, really need to bust a move on the Sockpalooza socks. T-minus 32 days, and I haven’t even started them yet. The swatch is a modified stitch pattern from a japanese craft book, but I need to add about 4 more stitches per pattern repeat to make it doable. This swatch was truly a labor of love - every traveling stitch and double decrease was worked on the wrong side.

I have confirmed that the sock yarn doesn’t bleed - it’s Tess (just like the bleedy laceweight), a prize from Jess for winning her blog contest, yay!

Remember the Counterpane Clutch? Ugh, neither did I. This thing has been sitting around since August. At some point I grafted the bottom together (I had started with a provisional CO to avoid a seam), but the rest was unfinished. I picked it up about a month ago and made what you see here. You see how the zipper is pinned to a separate lining? That was version 1.0, which was about an inch too narrow. Practice makes perfect, right? All I need to do is hand-sew the thing together and I’ll be done.