February 2008

Twisted

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Bayerische Socks have been in my queue for a long while. When I noticed that the February 2008 theme in Sockdown: Ravelry! is Eunny Chang, I figured it'd be a perfect chance to cast on this project.

On Raverly, there are lots of warnings of bent or broken needles or even sprained wrists. Apparently that's not enough of a challenge for me 'cause what do I do? I up the ante by working the socks two-at-a-time on a circular while trying to convert them to toe-up. I don't know which is more twisted: me or the project. (No need to answer that.)

But they are very, very pretty.

Project: Toe Up Bayerische (Ravelry), cast-on: February 1 2008
Pattern: Bayerische Socks (Ravelry) by Eunny Chang
Yarn: ONline Linie 2 Supersocke Silk (55% new wool/20% silk/25% polyamide) in colorway #0002 (ice blue)
Needles: 2.5 mm circular
Mods: Going toe-up!

I didn't want the yarn to clash with the stitch pattern so I chose something really uncomplicated and light-colored. Supersocke Silk was the perfect choice! It is very soft but with a great twist and the silk gives a great sheen. The Bavarian twisted stitches (also called traveling stitches) really pop up! See?

Ooh, here's something I forgot to blog about. This came in the mail last week: February 2008 shipment of Simply Socks Yarn Company sock club, Fleece Artist Somoko (merino/kid mohair/nylon/silk) in colorway "North Atlantic". I've never had Fleece Artist before! It's so pretty. (Ha! It's blue, of course it's pretty.) Mohair usually makes me itch but this is amazingly soft. I might even consider making a scarf out of it. Yes, that soft.

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(Almost) FO: Hannah

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

This was a super fast and fun knit!

Project: Handspun Hannah (Ravelry), cast-on: February 11 2008, cast-off: Febryary 13 2008
Pattern: Hannah (Ravelry) by Blake Ehrlich from December 2007 MagKnits
Yarn: about 100g of my handspun (bulky weight) in two colors
Needles: 6 mm circular and DPN's
Mods: One-row buttonholes according to Theresa Vinson Stenersen's instructions in Summer 2007 Knitty. Knitted two rows less stockinette before crown decreases. I'm glad I did that because I think I would've ran out of yarn otherwise!

I love it! It's a bit too large but I love it anyway. I haven't even found the right buttons for it yet but I've been wearing it nevertheless. :) Just plug in a safety pin and we're good to go!

The all-new, Ravelry-powered 2008 FO gallery is up'n'running. All the data is pulled automatically from my Ravelry notebook so I only have to write it down once, haha. :) I'm still working on the previous years' galleries but the old ones are accessible until then.

Don't you just love how the crown decreases curve perfectly together?

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Firing Up Project Spectrum

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

What a shock! It's not blue nor socks!

I've never done Lolly's Project Spectrum before but this year's elements-themed PS3 seems such a fun idea. Kicking of the year in February/March are FIERY colors of oranges, reds, and pinks.

I started with tame and innocent looking fiber from Villa Laurila...

that progressed into this...

and to this...

and finally to this! (What I'm not showing is the phase where it looked like intestines in a bag. hee!) My first handspun, squee! It's not perfect but I made it. :) That's roughly bulky-weight yarn in a 55g (the paler one on the left) and 44g (on the right) balls. And how could I resist casting on something with it? (I couldn't!) I got nearly perfect gauge for Hannah, which completely solves the dilemma I was having before. And I figure I'd much rather use the Malabrigo on something where I can appreciate the softness, like a neckwarmer or scarflette.

Project: Handspun Hannah (Ravelry), cast-on: February 11 2008
Pattern: Hannah by Blake Ehrlich from December 2007 MagKnits
Yarn: my handspun (squee!)
Needles: 6 mm circular and DPN's
Mods: None yet but I'm sure I'll come up with something. :P

Yum.

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Two Down for Sockdown

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Here's two FO's for Sockdown: Ravelry!

First off, my first FO in 2008! :) (which should've been finished a couple of days ago, but wasn't, and it would've been great to have the first 2008 FO in January, but I didn't) Sockdown January 2008 theme was intarsia or Cookie A. And I chose the latter.

(These will eventually go up in the 2008 FO page but I'm doing some behind-the-scenes stuff with the FO pages so the entire page isn't up yet. Sigh.)

Project: Baudelaire (Ravelry), cast-on: January 1 2008, cast-off: February 2 2008
Pattern: Baudelaire by Cookie A. from Summer 2006 Knitty
Yarn: Apleks Superwash in red, 80 g
Needles: 2.5 mm aluminum circular
Mods: I substituted the heel in the pattern with my favorite heel construction, Revisited Widdershins Heel, and eye of partridge heel. The cuffs were quite snug for my feet so I increased 1 purl stitch between the lace pattern and the cables once every 8th row 5 times (total 10 increased sts), then decreased on the first round of ribbing on the back of leg back to 32 sts.

Me likey! The yarn was bought from Estonia and it isn't the best of yarns to work with but it does plump up nicely after washing.

Here's a side view...

... and a better view of the heel and cuff increases.

Next up: socks for Sockdown: October (Nancy bush or cables). Yes, October. I did blog about these when I cast on but not when I finished.

Project: It's All French to Me (Ravelry), cast-on: October 28 2007, cast-off: November 27 2007
Pattern: Chausettes from Bergère de France. (The pattern is in French.) Click the pink "TELECHARGER" button to download the pattern in PDF format.
Yarn: Hjertegarn Ciao Trunte, color #1380 (sage green)
Needles: 2.5mm aluminum circular needles

(The color's distorted here, much more accurate in the first pic.)

Mods: Lots!

• I made a hidden casing (pictured above) for elastic by casting on with long-tail provisional cast on, knitting in stockinette for 6 rounds, purl across 1 round, and then 6 rounds in k1, p1 ribbing. Then I unpicked the cast-on edge and knit it together with the live stitches.
• I followed the pattern for the cuff otherwise but made it custom-length (= started heel flap when the cuff seemed long enough for me).
• The pattern had a regular slip-stitch heel flap but I wanted to try the eye of partridge heel since I'd never used it before. It looks very nice with the moss stitch pattern! And you can tell I liked it because I used it on the Baudelaires, too. :)
• Next, decreased 5 stitches more on each side (10 total) than what the pattern called for in the gussets. And because I had fewer stitches remaining, I re-calculated the toe decreases... somehow.
• Ran out of yarn! I could only find 1 ball in the same dye lot so the other toe is a little off-colored. You can't tell it in the pictures (and even I can't find it in natural light) but fluorescent light makes it pop up. I loved the first batch of yarn I got (it's very soft and sproingy) but I was surprised and disappointed that a commercially produced yarn would have such drastic differences in color (and even yarn thickness!) between dye lots. :/

Phew, long post today. More sockiness to follow...

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