August 2007

Ready for a New Challenge

Friday, August 31, 2007

The yarn is wound up (the yarn is dyed, too). The pattern is printed out. I've swatched; I've calculated. Tomorrow morning I cast on.

Sockdown: Ravelry challenge for September 2007 is Grumperina or toe-up. I'm doing both -- at the same time. :)

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Minitomus Finished

Friday, August 31, 2007

Minitomus anklets are done!

I'm trying something new here. In addition to posting the project notes on the FO page, I'm posting them on the blog as well. Because, uh, why not?

Pattern: Pomatomus by Cookie A. from Knitty, Winter 2005
Yarn: about 60g of Novita Nalle Colori (75% wool / 25% polyamide), colorway #813 (aqua/light blue/denim) -- leftover yarn from Rainy Day Socks. Many of the colorways in this yarn are seasonal so this particular one has been discontinued.
Needles: 3.5mm 80cm aluminum circular needle
Mods: Toe-up, ankle length. Revisited Widdershins heel in the k2tog tbl, p1 stitch pattern that was in the original pattern. The biggest mod is that I used sport/DK weight yarn so I had to downsize the pattern. In the instep, I had one less horizontal pattern repeat plus 1 st on each side (= 26 sts). 26 sts also on the sole so 52 sts in total. Decreased the extra 4 stitches after the heel so that I had 4 pattern repeats horizontally (= 48 sts). Continued in k2tog tbl, p1 ribbing on the heel needle until I reached row #1 in the stitch pattern. Made a cuff of one full pattern repeat, finished off with an applied I-cord edging.
Other: Summer of Socks 2007 pair #5, Sockdown: Ravelry August 2007 challenge (Sockbug or lace) pair #2

Bottom Line

• $$$: I bought the yarn this spring from a discount store and remember paying 3.90 € for it (at least that's what I wrote when I finished the Rainy Day Socks). Now, I'm not so sure anymore. The going price for the new fall colors, undiscounted, is 5.90 €. I had a small leftover skein of about 60 g so 2.50 € for the pair. Not bad!
• Pattern: Awesome pattern. The stitch pattern looks more challenging than it really is but you still need to be fairly concentrated. Totally doing this again. No wonder there are now 400+ finished and 500+ queued Pomatomi on Ravelry.
• Techniques: It's a fairly standard lace pattern but the k tbl's and k2tog tbl's will keep you on your toes. The most challenging stitch for me was the "sl 2, place 2 slipped stitches back on left needle, k3tog tbl". (Phew!) I couldn't wrap my head around it because I was slipping the stitches purlwise and they'd return to the left needle exactly as they'd been if I'd never slipped them in the first place. I googled around a bit and found pepperknit's post where she unvents the perfect centered double decrease. She helpfully bolds exactly the bit I needed! The key was "slip 2 stitches at once as if to k2tog" and from then on, it just clicked.
  Another new technique I tried was the applied I-cord edging that Brenda Dayne gushes over in Episode 50. In fact, I had to do it twice because the first try the edging was so tight I couldn't get the socks over my heels. The second try was a lot better, and it produces a very neat-looking, smooth edge. I couldn't figure out how to bind off the last few stitches (kitchener maybe?) so I just hacked up some sort of three-needle bind-off. It's visible in the pic and I couldn't even wait weaving in ends before trying them on and taking a pic. :D
• Yarn: For a Novita yarn, this was surprisingly soft. The colorway is/was great -- I don't understand why they have to discontinue the colors after 6 months. And what's even better, the yarn and stitch pattern were a great match for each other.
• Instant Gratification: Took me 10 days to finish but I did use sport weight yarn and made really short cuffs.
• Will I Wear Them? These will probably be wearing-around-the-house socks because of the sport weight yarn. And I don't want to get my ankles cold. :)
• Final score: 4/5. Must re-do in fingering weight yarn!

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New Pattern in the Works

Saturday, August 25, 2007

It's been a while since I've last come up with an original design. No, wait, that's not exactly true. I come up with design ideas and sketches all the time. But I don't manage to sit down and execute them, let alone write a pattern down. (The amigurumi pattern is sort of halfway there.)

For this pattern, I was inspired by the great stitch pattern in Stacey's (sheep in the city) My So Called Scarf and the call for one-skein stash busting projects on episode 26 of Stash and Burn. Here's a sneak preview, mock-up and a swatch all rolled into one:

It's sort of upside down. Sort of. But not really.

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Unintentional Knee-Highs

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The Zephyr Socks really turned out knee-highs! This is a great, stretchy pattern if you're looking for something that's very economical as far as yarn consumption is concerned. I was able to crank out knee-high socks of just two 50g balls. The yarn doesn't even have exceptional yardage. In fact, it has less than the wool blends I used for the previous socks. I guess cotton is heavier than wool.

I compiled a small comparison list of all the sock patterns that use the same stitch pattern (or something very similar). The sizes range from 54 to 80 stitches so you could make these for just about any size foot. Or do the smallest size in sport weight yarn -- that'd be nice, too. The list is located on the right side bar of the 2007 FO page.

I worked diligently on the Zephyrs over the weekend because I wanted to cast on another pair of lacy socks for the Sockdown: Ravelry August challenge. (Poor MacPalmikko, must be feeling neglected.) This is Minitomus, Pomatomus anklets made of sport weight yarn. I have a small leftover skein (from Rainy Day Socks) of this variegated aqua that I think will make great Poms. It's not enough for a full-size pair but worked toe-up might just make a pair of anklets. I've never done Pomatomus before but that doesn't stop me from modding it on the first go. :D Shouldn't probably say that I had to rip them back once already...

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Back to Work

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Summer vacation's over and it's time to get back to work. In fact, I've already been back for nearly two weeks. No more unlimited knitting time... as if I had that luxury during the break, anyway. =)

Summer's far from over, though, not even in these latitudes. It's been annoyingly hot and humid over the last two weeks (all hail the AC @ work). So hot and humid that my hands were getting quite sticky while knitting. The forecast says rain for Friday, hurrah!

Still working on the same projects. Tuesday night, the cuff of the Zephyrs reached the bottom of my calf muscle. I weighed the yarn and, gah!, still have more than third of the yarn left. I didn't realize these were going to be knee-his! (Don't mind it, though. It's just more knitting.)

Speaking of, browsing through Ravelry, I found yet another sock pattern (in addition to the three others mentioned previously) that has the exact same stitch pattern. How much more do we need?

I'm feeling really inspired to work on the cabled cardi despite the weather. I did a double take on the start of the cable pattern: I forgot to switch to larger needles after ribbing (*headdesk*) and had to rip back. After I fixed that, the cardi's been calling to me louder than the Zephyrs. But damn if it isn't slow going! I'm working the front and back in one piece on a circular so the rows are a bazillion stitches long. And there's lots of right twists on every right side row so, yeah, it's taking me forever. But I am nearly to the point where I calculated I should start the waist shaping. Fingers crossed!

Then some geeky techy website-y bits. I replaced the blog links (they were getting kinda stale anyway) on the right sidebar with some other content. Now there's your obligatory buttons and links to podcasts, knit-alongs, whatever. But at the top, there are what I've titled Fave Blog Posts (pic on the left). These are linked to my shared items on Google Reader -- recent blog posts that I find particularly interesting. They're updated constantly as I read more stuff. :D Occasionally, some Etsy items or even non-fiber-related posts might also pop up so don't be alarmed. I subscribe to all sorts of things.

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Sockdown Begins

Friday, August 03, 2007

New month, new knitalong and new projects!

August 1st was the kick-off date for Sockdown: Ravelry. I cast on for Zephyr Socks in Regia Cotton Jacquard Color. I'm really liking the stitch pattern: it's fast, easy and the resulting effect is really interesting. No wonder the same stitch pattern has been used in several other sock patterns.

I'm also liking the yarn. I've never used sock yarn that has cotton it it before, but I'm finding it very smooth and sturdy to work with. I was a bit worried that the socks wouldn't fit since you only cast on 54 sts for the Zephyrs. But the yarn is slightly thicker than the ones I've used before so no problem there. That and the lace pattern is stretchy. The only complaint I have is that the combination of the yarn and lace pattern makes to socks look a bit busy. It'd be better in solids or subtly variegated colors.

I also cast on for another project I've been ogling and drooling over for months now: Sanna's gorgeous Monarch of the Glen inspired cabled cardigan (pictures here). I want to wear this when the weather gets cool in the fall so I figure I'd better start working on it already. The pattern is written for flat knitting but I'm working the fronts and back in one piece. And that of course means that one row is miles long. So far, I've barely made it past the ribbing so nothing much to show yet.

My copy of Deathly Hallows also arrived (finally!) so I have no problem figuring out what to do this weekend. :)

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