A quickie

I got my Felici yarn order last week and immediately pulled out the Positively Pink yarn to make a pair (a PAIR, not a trio) of socks for a little girl I’ll be seeing this weekend.  They went so fast that I’m now done!  This isn’t the greatest photo in the world (I think this particular sockitecture looks best on feet) but you can see that (a) they are done and (b) they match perfectly.  I think this will please the little miss. I wanted the stripes to continue perfectly down the front of the sock, so I elected NOT to do my typical favorite flap-style heel.  Even a shortrow heel worked between the leg and the foot would interrupt the striping.  Instead, I made an afterthought heel.  I started at the cuff and knit a tube until it was time for the heel.  Then I knit half the total # of stitches onto a piece of waste yarn, dropped the waste yarn, and resumed knitting in the round.  Here is a shot of sock #2, sans heel, before I went to knitting group last night: Then I just picked up the stitches with 2 circular needles, pulled out the waste yarn, and knit the heel using the exact same structure that I used for this toe.  I kitchenered the last heel stitches at the very end.

I’m pleased with the results, though I want to fiddle with the technique a little to better avoid little gaps at the gussets like this one: I picked up an extra stitch at each side of the heel opening and knitted that stitch through the back loop, which helped but didn’t totally eliminate this.  The hole pictured above is on sock #1 and I’m happy to report that this looks better on sock #2.

Look how perfectly the stripes lined up on the fronts!This pair came in at under 1 ball of yarn.  Now I have another ball for something else. 

After I finished that off at knitting group last night, I got my spindle out again.  I have fallen off the 15-minutes-a-day plan since finishing the first batch of yarn, and it was high time I got back on the wagon.  I grabbed some dyed Polworth roving I got at MDSW earlier this month and divided the 4 oz on half.  I took 2 oz with me and started spinning.  Here is how far I got: When I finish this 2 oz, I’ll wind off and spin the other 2 oz, then ply.  I love this rich mustardy color, which is labelled “Sand Pebbles”:

Whew!

Remember when I ended up making 3 mismatched socks for a birthday present for Katie (age 4) because I didn’t have enough yarn to make a matched pair? I probably never blogged about this, but she was not at all into this idea.  She very much thought her socks should match and could not be convinced to be whimsical about this.  Bummer.

I am happy to report that she has now come around to the idea and is wearing her socks.  This just in from her mother: That was a close one.

Ana-ana-anastasia!

Katie’s birthday socks are done – she will be 4 next month. Hmmm, maybe I should have made her 4 socks instead of 3.  Then again, that might be a bad precedent.  Sweet 16 would be quite a commitment!

I started this pair with a single, 50-gram skein of Koigu (pictured in the middle) from my stash, thinking it would be no trouble to get a 4-year-old girl’s pair of socks out of it.  WRONG!  I ran out of yarn at the heel of sock #2.  So… I grabbed other leftover sock yarn and made socks using the same pattern out of other colorways.  The pastel yarn on the left is left over from Lily’s 2nd birthday socks, and the brighter yarn on the right is left over from Signe’s 11th birthday socks.  Both of those were knit back in 2004.

Hopefully Kristina can make a trio of mismatched socks really fun for Katie.  Help a knitter out.  Ham it up!

Also in sock knitting news, I found a new sock knitting project bag this weekend.  This cicada bag was made my Hiroko Rubin in Fairfield, PA.  Isn’t it cute?

Another Pink Sock

My latest office project has been a new pair of socks for Katie, whose pair from last Christmas is getting too snug.  I decided to use that single skein of girl-y purple and pink Koigu that has been languishing in stash and pepperknits’ Anastasia Socks pattern.  (Katie is nearly 4, so pink and purple could not be more perfect.)  It features a lacy spiral motif that helps break up plain stockinette without being too fancy for a handpainted yarn.  Here is Sock #1:The proportions look kind of off to me.  This is partly because I don’t have Katie’s foot here to fit, and partly because these aren’t blocked (I don’t have child-sized blockers).  I decided not to worry about it too much.  I think Katie wears her handknit socks to sleep in, so perfect foot fit isn’t critical.  I’d rather make them a little too long than too short.

I ended up making the pattern a little more difficult than it actually is.  I knit these cuff-down, and I wanted the spiral motif to swirl seamlessly around the leg.  The pattern does not do this – it’s written to be knit on 2 circular needles, and when the stripe runs out on one end, it just stops.  I kept moving the stitches around so that the spirals could continue uninterrupted on the leg.

Here’s the top view. One more to go.  This should knit up pretty quickly.

Coriolis Socks

Coriolis Socks
Originally uploaded by JLW in PA

Katie's socks are done! Here they are modeled by a very helpful little boy. They are a little hard to get on and I hope they are not too small for her. I think the tightness is a result of the construction, not the end fit. I tried to make these a little bigger than the foot I measured last month, to allow for growth spurts . We shall see.

I also increased the stitch count around the leg a bit on the way up, for a little more shaping. This is very helpful in a sock with a stockinette cuff.

I've got plenty more of this yarn left - probably enough to make her another pair of socks when she gets older. Or... how cute is this hat made of sock yarn? (sorry, it's a Ravelry link)

Project updates

Things have been pretty busy here, so the blog has been quiet. That does not mean there has been no fiber, though! Here are some project updates:

Katie's socks

I started knitting Katie's 3-year-old birthday socks and am 3/4 done. I'm using the Coriolis construction from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters, in Tess' Designer Yarns "Super Socks and Baby" yarn that Kristina purchased at MDSW. The colorway might be "spring garden," but it wasn't marked and I'm not sure (it looks like some of the other spring gardens in Ravelry, though). They are going well. I thought I wanted to do a picot edge on the cuff, and I tried to adapt the picot bind-off from the Fetching fingerless mitts pattern, but it looks weird. I'll pull it out and do something else.

Spinning

Sunday evening, I pulled out the wheel and did some spinning. I'm still working on "Heidi's Blues" and a new photo wouldn't really tell you much. I decided to start a new bobbin. In an attempt to not end up with a lot of leftover singles, I weighed bobbin #1 with its singles, then weighed empty bobbin #2, and weighed enough fiber to bring it up to the weight of #1. When I'm done spinning the pile of measured fiber on the piano, I'll try making some 2-ply. It's harder for me to get a really smooth single out of this fiber. It's grippy.

Koolhaas

Speaking of spinning, remember the grey Coopworth handspun that I wanted to knit right away to see if there was anything to be learned by knitting with my handspun? It turned out to be too bulky for the Habitat hat (so I used Julia for the hat, instead). I swatched the Koolhaas pattern with the grey yarn and decided I didn't have the right needles. A Knit Picks order was placed. The needles have arrived, but I haven't cast on for the hat yet. I hope that this one will fit Sharon's head a bit better.

Holiday Gifts (the magazine)

The Koolhaas pattern originally appeared in the 2007 issue of Interweave Knits' Holiday Gifts. Has anyone gotten the 2008 issue yet? I wasn't planning to visit my LYS anytime soon and it's a 25-minute drive from my house, so I thought I'd order it online. But the shipping cost drove me away - IK charges $4.50 to mail a $7.99 magazine! I emailed my LYS (The Mannings) to see what they charge to shipping it out to me, but I haven't heard back yet. If anyone local is heading there soon, let me know - I'd love to have you pick up that issue for me.

Holiday Gifts (the presents)

Now that I'm done with the Habitat hat, I thought I would use the leftover Julia yarn (about 1/2 ball) to make one of those adorable sweater ornaments that Berroco designed. My mom is nuts about Christmas, and even nuttier about decorating her tree - one of these would be a great gift for her.

I'm also planning to make Sharon a bag for Christmas. She wants a felted bag with a special fabric lining. She has chosen the fabric from an online store (ReproDepot) and wants the yarn to match the fabric. We need to get the fabric asap so I can decide which yarn to use. We have a sketch scribbled on the back of a Ping's placement. Now all I have to do is work out the design details. Should be fun! Here is the fabric:

Election

Did you vote yet? For the first time ever, I stood in a line to vote today - about 10 people were ahead of me at my local municipal building. I have never not gone directly to the table before. It was exciting! Local Democrats are abuzz about the lawn sign in our front yard. Check it out (part 1 and part 2).