FO: Fell Walkers

It's been a while since I've posted a crafty project.  It's summer (still?), I just don't feel like it.  

I did finish a pair of socks that I started on the trail though.

I went for a stash-dive and picked out a nice ball of Opal Shafpate and cast on for the Reverso socks from the most recent Knitty.

I cast on during the train ride to Carlisle and I was pleasantly surprised to see that they were fell-colored!  What a serendipitous choice for a hiking take-along.   

Not my hairy arm, btw.... 

Or my hairy legs....

I am usually hesitant to try out new techniques when it comes to sock construction.  I'm a bit lazy that way.  I don't like to think too hard when I'm making a pair of socks, as I knit them on the go and dislike fiddly things.  These were worth it though, and an idea that I had been contemplating for a while: how to make a pair of socks that can be worn with the smooth knit-side fabric on the soles without having to do a ridiculous amount of purling.  

Easy: make them inside out!

You start at the cuff in mistake rib pattern.  Instead of gusset increases, you do Cat Borhdi's ceder construction, which puts the increases at the heel instead.  Once you start the heel turn, you flip the socks inside out, and continue in the mistake rib.

So now you have a pair of socks that there is no right or wrong side out!

The only awkward moment was grafting the toe and weaving the ends in, as I tried my best to hide it.  They are cozy, warm stretchy socks that would easily fit a variety of foot sizes, so great for gifting.  They also didn't take too long at all as far as socks go.

The yarn is 75% superwash, 25% nylon, so they should wear well for years.  If not, it's going to be a mess for me to try and patch these up, as I generally count on the repair work to not be seen on the inside.

Now I'm somewhat obsessed with self-striping sock yarn.  For years, I favored intricate cable and lace patterns on my sock, which pairs well with the hand-painted variegated yarn I love so much.  Intricate patterns tend to get lost when you have yarn that stripes heavily, so doing plain socks or some texture works better.

I love them so much, I cast on another pair of stripe socks as soon as I was done.  The bug has bitten once again.  

Scarves

Right before I packed up and moved from Brooklyn, I had an insane urge to make a few bulky-yarn projects in order to:

1. Use up the bulky-yarn stash. I think all new knitters go through a phase where the answer is "bulky yarn" to all their yarn questions. It's fast all right. But damn, if you could get something to look flattering on something other than a waif, you deserve an award.

2. Justify my use of knitting time as making visual progress at a time when I felt like I was getting no where and spending my days on endless hold-music calls. Most of these things were all knitted in the course of an afternoon, and in one case, in the time it took for AT&T to dick me around and not resolve anything at all, even though I was asking nicely.

First up: a handspun cowl. It started out as a braid of Corriedale/Alpaca blend from Spunky Eclectic in the "Thunderstorm" colorway.

Great colors...nice and moody.

Spun it up as a chunky 2-ply.

Then I learned a fantastic new technique...the Mobius cowl.

It's a little tricky to get started, but it's simple once you do it. Randomly altering your knit and purl rows makes for interesting texture, and there are tons of different ways to make this your own.

I loved it so much, I went ahead and dug up bags of scarps of some Rowan Biggy Print (which may or may not have been in my stash for more than 7 years) and made a stripy, ultra bulky one on size 17 needles.

It's enormously warm, and I love the texture that the thick-and-thin yarn produced. I randomly alternated the two colors I had until I ran out of yarn, and poof! it's magic! Really, it would have been pushing it if I invested two hours in this.

So I kept on rolling with the Biggy Print, and made a mistake-rib scarf with what I had left:

The pattern (if you could call it that) is Franciose from "French Girl Knits". Mine came out short, so a pin or a button might be added at some point.

One more:

A VERY GLITZY alpaca batt from Loop!

I bought this ages ago, when I first started spindle-spinning. 2006 or '07. I spun it up pretty quickly, but then the yarn just sat in a bin for all these years. Shameful!

Spun up and plied, I only had 74 yards.

So I made a wee necktie out of it, based on this pattern (which called for laceweight yarn).

It does need a good blocking, but it used up all my yarn. Mission accomplished.

I felt clean and purged when that was done. No more odd skeins of overweight yarn to slow me down! Overly warm neckware to the rescue.

FO: Houdini Socks

I finished!

These were actually really easy. The steeking worked out nicely...it's just a fun, unusual sock construction.



This is the very last skein of Socks that Rock in my stash. I loved the colorway- Atomic 6. Great deep jewel tones of purples and blues, and it didn't pool funky at all. It's taken me almost a year, but I've been able to knit through all 13 skeins of this yarn that's been in a bin under my couch (admit it- it's fare game for yarn storage under there). It's been fun- I really like this yarn. I find it fades quite a bit after a wash (especially the darker colors) but it wears well- no holes to be mended so far. It's nice and thick so it works up quick and cushy.



Once the tube was made and steeked, you made another tube for the leg, and this one had a fun feather and fan variation. I used some leftover yarn in the "River Rocked" colorway for the contrasting stripe. I modified the pattern a bit- I did more lace pattern and less stripe.



The only thing I don't like about the construction is the bump the heel has. Because it's basically a second toe-shape, it doesn't conform perfectly to your foot like a short-row heel would.



See? It makes a little belly-button like pucker at the heel where it's kitchnered closed.

I got a chance to learn Judy's Magic Cast on for the toe as well- I love it. I would highly recommend this technique for toe-up socks and I've declared it my new favorite.

Since sportweight yarn is a wee bit too thick to make socks that fit in shoes, I'm not going to let that bump bother me. These are a great pair of house socks. I might end up gifting them anyway- my sock drawer is pretty much full and

The specs: 1 skein of BMFA Socks that Rock Mediumweight in "Atomic 6", plus a couple yards of scraps of the contrasting stripe. Which meant there were ends to weave in, but I love the effect. I used size 1.5 needles and made these two at a time on two circs.

Totally unrelated but amusing:



Bullit is one of my favorite movies, if only because of the pimp '68 Dodge Charger that Steve McQueen drives and the fact that he can rock a shawl-collared sweater AND he made a turtleneck look sexy. Who else can do that? Not too many. A British graphic designer is re-creating the iconic car chase scene in stop-motion and slot cars. How fun is that?

Houdini Socks

I've been plugging away at the Houdini Socks all last week. You start a toe-up sock, but instead of turning the heel and going on the the leg, you just make a another toe at the opposite end of the tube. Then you use your circular needle to pick up and secure a line of stitches at the top of the sock.



You skip a row and thread another circ next to it. And then you take your tiny sharp scissors and you give a snip to that center tow. The two needles protect you entire sock from unraveling, but you just pick out that middle row. Predictably, it makes a big hole but that's where your foot goes so you need a bit of clearance. The second "toe" becomes the heel. Your stitches are already threaded on the needles, so you just start knitting away on the cuff. Genius, no?



I'm not sure how it will fit my foot yet (some heels tend to fit me better than others, and I don't know until I try them on and give them some wear) but I'm really enjoying knitting these. Cutting my knitting apart wasn't nearly as nerve wracking as I thought it would be and it's good practice for when I choose to do something with serious steeks.

Autocorrect just tried to turn the word "steeks" into "steaks", so now I'm hungry.

Warming Myself the Best Way I Know How- With Booze and Knitwear

Wintertime is a great time for warming yourself in front of a fireplace (even if it's only a metaphorical fireplace) with a snifter in hand. Last night, we did just that over at the Brandy Library in Tribeca. We were there for a Cognac tasting. I'm a whisky drinker and I have never really tried Cognac or knew anything about them, but I'm always happy to discover new and exotic ways to get my drink on.

Because I am willing to sacrifice my morning after alertness for the sake of an educational experience, I found a couple of Congnacs that I really liked. Several more I deemed drinkable, and there were a couple that I wouldn't want to repeat the experience- they burned going down, had a harsh acidic aftertaste, or just tasted like the sour grapes they came from. Overall, I felt very warm and relaxed and fuzzy once the buzz settled in, which was really nice.

I think my favorite of the evening was a Bache Hors d'Age. It was a rather staggering $200 a bottle, but so pleasant and drinkable. I also had the pleasure of trying a couple precious sips of Louis XIII. This usually sell between $1800-$2500 a bottle. It was the most flavorful and mellow of everything I tried, but I don't have a palate for it enough to tell you more. I spent the rest of the evening telling the Wall Street bankers at the bar, "Yes darlings, I just simply can not have a productive week of social affairs if I haven't had my Louis on Monday evening." à votre santé!

Afterward was a pleasant stroll across Chinatown to warm ourselves with the wonderful Joe's Shanghai for soup dumplings. If you've never had them, I feel very sorry for you.

Other than continuing my hedonistic binge, I've been knitting away.



I finished my Land of Oz shawl, but haven't had a chance to get good pictures of it. So there's a teaser.

I cast on for another pair of socks. Yawn. With my very last skein of BMFA Socks that Rock that exists in my stash. Squeee! The color is "Atomic 6" and I love it.



They are going to be the Houdini Socks by Cat Bordhi. They are made toe-up, but you just make a tube for the foot with a toe on each end. Then you cut open the sock to create a place to fit your foot in before continuing on with the cuff. Genius, no? Well, I'm not going to say that quite yet. Let's wait to I actually get to the cutting part to see how badly I sweat this. More Cognac please!

I've also been plugging away at the Placed Cable Aran.



It's a really simple plain pullover that has a series of three O cables that grace both the front in back. It's in good old Cascade 220, that workhorse of a worsted weight yarn.

I've also been chipping away at the mound of fiber in my spinning basket from Cadfael. I can't believe how much space that little fleece puffed up to once it got teased and carded. And shhhh...I still have a huge 1 gallon freezer bag packed with more of the fleece needing to be picked through and carded. I was seriously doubting that I had a sweater-amount of that BFL fleece, but I've already got 3 full 4oz bobbins spun up and I've barely noticed a dent in the pile. I need to throw a movie on the big screen and get through some of that wool already.

FO- Knetted Socks

I finished a pair of socks recently. They are from the Socks that Rock club from last fall. Begone, sock yarn! You will languish no further in my stash.



The yarn is BMFA medium weight in "River Rocked". The skein is absolutely gorgeous- so many great fall colors in there.



Predictable, it knitted up kind of muddy, but I did love this pattern. The linen stitch diamonds helped show off the colors.







The pattern is "Knetted", by Cat Bordhi. She does such unusual, creative patterns. This one had a heel that I can only describe as a "happy face". It's "U" shaped, and it fits really well, and it eliminates the need for gusset shaping. And the toe- there was no Kitchener stitch involved. There was a series of decreases the spiraled down to nothing. Really ingenious. They look kind of funky without a foot in them, but they are actually really nice on.

Oh, and I started this for Socktoberfest. I forgot to take pictures of that event. It's our annual sock-knitting and beer-swilling evening at the local Teutonic establishment. We do it on a Monday night, and everyone backs away from us and leaves us alone.

This is yet another skein gone for my A-Z stashdown challenge. I actually noticed a dent in my sock yarn bin the other day. Oh, that's only because I've used 12 skeins of sock yarn up since this challenge began last spring.

These are going to be gifted, as my sock draw is full. The medium weight yarn is a bit too thick to shove into a pair of shoes, so these would be great house slippers or an outer layer boot sock. I grew up in Maine, and buying your winter boots a size too big so you can fit another thick wooly layer of sock is the norm.

September STR

I had joined the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Rockin Sock Club last winter...my itchy mouse-clicking finger did anyway. This is the first time I tried a sock club- I'm usually a bit picky about my yarn colors and patterns that I choose. I must say, so far I've been impressed with what I've been getting in the mail. The colors especially have made me swoon this month.


STR Mediumweight in "River Rocked"


The photographs do not do the yarn justice. The colors are brilliant, and the linen-stitch sock pattern by Cat Bordhi plays on these colors well. They just scream "perfect autumn day" to me.

It was all I could do to keep myself from casting on. I have two projects on the needles that I'm actually making progress on and I need to keep it that way. I stashed the new sock yarn in the bin and went back to the Aeolian. Only 3 rows left! I can knock this thing out in a couple hours barring any great knitterly blunder or yarn shortage. And the Espresso- I'm on target to be able to wear this as a FO to Rhinebeck. I don't need a sock distraction right now.

But still.

If yarn could have puppy dog eyes, this is what it looks like: