German yarn, via Denmark

My friend Gretchen went to Copenhagen for a week.  On her way out, I gave her a $20 bill and asked her to buy me some interesting Danish yarn that we don’t see here in the U.S.  She had a hard time!  Almost everything in the shops there was available here, too.  But she found this skein of Opal handpainted (handgefarbt) yarn. 

We have Opal sock yarns here, but they are usually the self-striping or self-patterning types that come in 100 g balls.  This is a bit different.  The label says “Pullover- & Sockenwolle” but this is a typical sock yarn put-up: 100 g, 425 meters, 75% superwash wool 25% polyamid.  It’s quite pretty.  Clearly the colorway is inspired by the paintings of Franz Marc – aren’t the colorful sheep on the label cute?  I see this becoming a shawl or scarf… but maybe socks!  Not sure yet.I can’t read this label but Gretchen said it was almost $20 on the dot.  I’m also not sure I linked to the right shop in Ravelry.  It looks like Uldstedet has two locations.  I picked the one that said “city” in Ravelry because I think she was downtown rather than in the ‘burbs.

This is the second time I’ve pressed a $20 bill into the hands of someone about to take an overseas trip (the first time was when Dave went to Argentina).  It’s SUCH a fun game!

Now, who is going abroad next?

Mea culpa

I fear the yarn fumes got to me a bit at the Sock Summit marketplace and I’m a little surprised at how much stuff I bought.  I’ve been putting off this post partly because the past two weeks have been incredibly busy, but also because I feel slightly embarrassed by this bounty.  So, please join me in the confessional booth.

Let’s just do it, shall we?  Here is what I got.  First, two really cute project bags.  First, this one from Dancing Sheep: You know how those blue and green combos draw me – and the flash of orange was irresistible. I think this was my very first purchase when the market opened to students Thursday night.  Much later, I spied this one: I have been eyeing this sock monkey fabric for years, just waiting until the right bag made from it came along.  The bag is made by good to be girl but I bought it at The Plucky Knitter booth.

Since we’re already on the topic of Plucky, let’s look at the yarn I bought there.  I was entranced by this booth – the yarn was all dyed in rich shades of semi-solids, and there were a LOT of neutrals.  I ended up getting 4 skeins of Primo Fingering, which is 75% merino, 20% cashmere, and 5% nylon.  I really hope that 5% holds up its end of the deal.  It is a 4-ply with a tight, springy twist, so I’m hopeful.  I got these colors (the green is Wonder Years and the blue is 2Cool4School) to make the now ubiquitous Different Lines shawl. Later, I went back to get yarn for Kris and me to make a pair of socks for Ed, our Portland host during Sock Summit.  Because he has big man feet, I got two skeins – just to be safe.  This is a neutral called M.A.S.H. Tent which somehow contains hues of green, brown, and grey all at the same time.  (Steven: breathe into a paper bag if you need to.) Next, here is Sincere Sheep’s Cushy Fine yarn – 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon (this is a common base and while the cashmere is nice, it’s really the nylon I’m after).  The color is “Winter’s Night” and it is dyed with natural dyes – it is a moody blue-grey.  There is a generous 490 yards in this skein.  3 plies, medium twist: Next, let’s visit Huckleberry Knits.  I was completely overcome by the rich shades of this yarn – and I was eager to try the 80% Blue-Faced Leicester/20% nylon base which she calls “Willow.”  I couldn’t decide what to get so I ended up with FOUR skeins (in my own defense, I was also having a “hungry emergency” while in this booth): From the left, the color names are absinthe, browncoat (a reddish-brown), eucalyptus (it’s green – so hard to photograph), and creme brulee.  Willow is a 3-ply with medium-high twist.

I got this skein of Lucia yarn from Dirty Water Dyeworks – it’s 75% superwash merino/25% nylon and the color name is “Pixie” – this is a 4-ply light fingering that is fairly twisty.  It is also very green and a little more variegated than any other yarn I bought:While we’re doing the green yarn, this is watercolors sock yarn from Periwinkle Sheep.  The color is “juniper” and it’s also 75% superwash merino/25% nylon.  Like Lucia above, it has 4 plies and is fairly twisty.  I’ll bet these two skeins were dyed on the same base yarn.  You really can’t tell from the photo but I swear, this is green!

I picked a lot of sedate yarns.  This Anzula yarn is called Squishy and it’s 80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, and 10% nylon in a 3-ply.  The yarn base sounds like that used by Sincere Sheep in Cushy Fine, but it feels a lot softer.  I’m guessing that’s the difference between superwash merino and regular merino.  The color is unnamed so I’ll just call it “brown”: Now, on to my WEBS purchases.  I wanted to try this new Lorna’s Laces sock yarn called Solemate – it’s 55% superwash merino, 15% nylon, and 30% Outlast. Outlast is a human-made fiber designed to regulate body temperature (used by NASA originally, I think?).  The yarn is a 3-ply light fingering with decent twist.  I got the colorway “Grand Street Ink,” which also has the Brooklyn Tweed logo stamped on it.  It is a moody purplish-grey: Also at the WEBS booth, I picked up two 50-gram skeins of their own Valley Yarns Huntington, which is a standard 4-ply 75% fine superwash merino/25% nylon with a medium twist.  The color is “mustand” but in my mind, it’s “school bus.”  This yarn is definitely destined for S1’s feet! And here is the only non-sock yarn I bought at the Summit – 8 ounces (665 yards) of a 3-ply DK weight 100% superfine alpaca in a heathery purple color: I plan to make some kind of infinity scarf out of this – for me.  It will be sooooo snuggly warm in the wintertime.  I got this at the Village Spinning & Weaving Shop booth.

I also got a pattern for the Achillea Socks by Kirsten Kapur.  A booth sample seduced me.

That’s it, folks.  I feel like I’ve just finished a huge Thanksgiving meal and I won’t want to eat again for days.  I’m going to try to not buy any new yarn for quite a while.  There are so many socks I’d like to make in a couple of books and this stash should keep me busy for quite some time.  I’ll tell you about those in a future post, though.

Signing off!  I feel so much better now that I’ve told you about this.  And I’m not even Catholic. :)

Impaliens, Phone Sox, and a Good Sign

I have been meaning to knit these adorable mini aliens for a while… and when S1’s birthday loomed, I decided it was time.  Aren’t they cute?  I’m calling them “impaliens” because I had to impale them on spare dpns to pose the photo (they don’t stand up on their own).  I’m sure you can think of a ruder name, but let’s stick with “impaliens” for now, eh?

Here they are walking in a line (the pink one is losing focus):

And here they are at band practice – Blue is Lead Singer and the others are the backup singers:

These were so quick and fun to knit.  I used scraps from my worsted weight feltable wool stash, and I ordered the safety eyes (7.5 mm) from 6060.etsy.com.  They are super easy to use and come in a variety of colors and sizes.  The pattern gives directions for knitting these either flat or in the round – I chose to knit flat, which I think made it easier to apply the eyes and mouth.

S1 also wanted a phone sock of her own, and she liked the honeycomb pattern from Boy 1’s Socks-to-be-Electrified, so I whipped this up: It is just enough to keep a phone from getting banged up when it’s inside a larger bag.  I used Knit Picks Stroll Tonal left over from these socks.Those small items were secret knitting, unveiled on the day I returned from Sock Summit.  I couldn’t put them on the blog or Flickr or the secret would be out.

So that covers the impaliens and the phone sock.  Now for the Good Sign.  Yesterday we got news that the boys’ favorite babysitter has mono plus a bacterial infection and more.  She’s really sick.  She’s supposed to leave for a year abroad in Turkey in 2-3 weeks.  And if she looks as sick as she is now, they won’t let her on the airplane.  So we want her to get well fast.  Boy 2 made her this card (symmetry is very important right now):Note that he includes some temporary tattoos – just what every sick teenage girl wants!  But the inside is the best part – read this: “We’ll make something out of yarn.”  It’s not a good sign that Joanna is sick, but I’m taking it as a very good sign that Boy 2 thinks making her something out of yarn will help her get better.

So… we are going to make another impalien tonight.  

Tricorn Baby Hat

I’ve whipped up a baby hat to take with me to Sock Summit.  It would be rude to show up to a baby shower without a gift!  Appropriately, this hat is knit from sock yarn.  Look, it’s a tricorn baby hat (tee hee):

This simple pattern is from the Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders book, which is chockfull of quick patterns that could address my sock yarn stash quite well. This hat took only 32 grams of yarn (including the tassels).  The yarn was left over from Boy 1’s Circle Socks (also going to Sock Summit).  I still have 57 grams of this yarn left – it has more to give. 

Yes, this hat required more stitches than a baby hat knit from worsted weight yarn (the CO # was 120), but the result is so cute and I didn’t have to buy any new yarn to make it.  Also important: the yarn is machine-washable.  I insist on that for my charity knitting projects.

Mods: I knit the body of the hat a little longer than the 5.5” specified in the pattern because I thought it looked a little skimpy (remember, my first child had a HUGE head).  The model above is Boy 2, now 6 years old.  He’s a little small for his age.  I think the hat will be fine on most babies and even many toddlers.  I hope it brings a smile to a Portlander’s face.

Countdown to SS: 9 days to go.  Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Sweet Shawlette

Rose Beck, the designer of the Sugared Violets pattern, describes it as “the fifth shawl of the Be Mine collection, a set of floral-inspired shawlettes designed to be both simple and sweet.”  Mine definitely fits that description, don’t you think? This is crescent-shaped and mostly stockinette, with just a couple of lace stitches thrown in for the edging. An added bonus: it also looks like a giant mustache when viewed flat.

I am very pleased with the match between yarn and pattern.  This sock yarn really wasn’t well-suited to socks at all… but it will work great as a shawlette.  The skein was 113 grams and I used all but 19.

Spring has sprung!

Here is my Cedar Leaf Shawlette, finished and ready to go to work! This was such a fun, fast, satisfying project.  I finished it in a week.  The week included a couple of heavy knitting days, but also many days where I didn’t touch the needles at all.  The first part was mindless enough that I could have done it at work (though I started on a weekend, so that was the weekend part).  The leaf edging wasn’t really office knitting.The pattern very specifically said that blocking was needed to make the leaves behave properly.  I started to fret about this partway through, since I was knitting with a sock yarn containing nylon (this Crock O Dye is actually a superwash/nylon/silk blend).  Both the superwash treatment and the nylon fight against blocking.  You WANT these qualities in sock yarn so that the socks spring back into shape after wearing and washing.  You generally don’t want those qualities in lace.  Oops. However, I knit this sock yarn on a US 5 needle, and thanks to that – and the silk content, I think – the final product seems to drape just fine.  Note: the designer calls for a wool/silk blend in DK weight on size 7 needles.  I downsized a bit since I was working with fingering weight yarn.

I have received so many compliments already at the office today, and it’s only lunchtime.  I’m thrilled with how this came out. It is the perfect accessory for this time of year, when it’s chilly in the morning but wearing a jacket feels like a bit much.

My mom might need one of these for her birthday this year…

Cedar growth spurt

My Cedar Leaf Shawlette has definitely experienced a growth spurt today – 13 leaves have sprouted since this morning!There will be 30 leaves in all, so I’m nearing the halfway point. The way this edging goes on is interesting.  You can see above that the edge stitches on the body are still live (on the pink cable).  I cast 5 stitches on to the dpn to begin the first leaf, and then there is a lot of increasing and decreasing and eating up of the edge stitches.  18 rows later, there is a new leaf and 5 stitches on the dpn again.  I’m ready to start another leaf above.

Leaf detail:Bonny, Saroyan looks like a fraternal twin to Cedar Leaf Shawlette, and the Ravelry description even mentions compares the two patterns.  I say “go for it!”

A bit of spring

I’ve been wanting a very small shawl or scarf to wrap around my neck on chilly spring mornings here (or in my ultra chilly office).  I’ve been musing about this for at least a couple of weeks, but Friday night I got serious and spent some time on Ravelry looking for candidates that could be knit out of stash sock yarn.

Saturday morning I reevaluated my two finalists, Cedar Leaf Shawlette and Sugared Violets.

Here is Alana Dakos’s Cedar Leaf Shawlette (worn like a shawl – but truly, I intend to wear it more like a scarf):

And here is Rose Beck’s Sugared Violets (again, a small crescent-shaped shawl that I would wear like a scarf):

I was feeling the pull of spring green, so I picked this Knit One, Crochet Too Crock-O-Dye sock yarn from stash.  The yardage was a better match for the Cedar Leaf project, so that made my decision for me. I have just finished the main part of the garment.  Now it’s time to figure out how to attach those perky little leaves. Maybe I’ll be sporting this by the end of the week!

Baaaaaaad superwash merino

You’ve heard me diss 100% merino sock yarn before (especially the superwash stuff).  It just doesn’t hold up.  Merino is a short-stapled, very fine fiber.  It’s heavenly soft and takes dye beautifully, but it doesn’t withstand the rigors we put our socks through (friction, moisture, stretching over our heels).

Once I understood this more clearly, I stopped stashing superwash merino sock yarn.  But I had plenty of socks already knit from it.  So, I learned to darn – and I darn with a different yarn than the weak one from which the socks were knit.  Still, there is only so much that darning can handle.  Here are some sad socks that are bound for the Great Sock Drawer in the Sky: I darned the sock on the left – and the darned part held up – but the yarn right next to the darned section broke through (as did the other sock).  I knew it was a losing battle.Below is a pair of commercial socks, the popular SmartWool brand.  I really like SmartWool socks, but the ones that aren’t true hiking socks don’t hold up nearly as well as the hikers.  This is one such pair:See the white spots near the ball of the foot?  That is nothing but nylon.  The blue, wooly part has worn completely away.  I can feel the floor through my socks when I wear these (which is why they, too, are soon bound for the Great Sock Drawer in the Sky).

My socks normally wear most at the heel and the toe tip.  It’s unusual for a sock to wear this much on the ball of the foot.  But these did, because they aren’t reinforced there.  See how the fabric changes?  The heels and toes of these socks are made much more strongly than the ball part.  On the SmartWool hikers, the balls are much sturdier.  That’ll teach me to steer clear of non-hikers in the future, I guess.

There’s a reason that those workhorse German sock yarns like Regia and Opal contain nylon or polyamid.  If you’re anti-synthetic, try a yarn with mohair in it – I’ve heard mohair referred to as “nature’s nylon.”  It has a really long staple, is non-springy, and is very strong.

I’m sad to say goodbye to these socks – Steven and I dyed the yarn together using Kool-Aid, and they were very attractive.  I bought that bare sock yarn before I imposed the “no 100% merino sock yarn” rule. 

RIP, Kool-Aid Socks.

Yarn delivery

After a deliciously agonizing period of deliberation, I’ve made some choices about solid sock yarns from Simply Socks Yarn Company (part of my winnings!) for two projects in my near future.

First, Pam chose this Tangled Garden pattern for her prize socks: We picked the colors “pink” and “wheatgrass” for these:

And S1 settled on the colors “green,” “mocha,” “brick,” and “chocolate” for her Mad for Plaid fraternal quadruplet socks:

These are going to be FUN!

Felici Felici Felici!

You may recall that I have a thing for Felici sock yarn.  The stripes.  The softness.  The durability.  The stripes.

Well, hold on to your circulars, knitters – new colorways are here.  I love this blog post that shows the design boards from back when these yarns were being born.

Hmmm… what colors shall we get?

Just for fun, here are the socks I’ve knit from balls of Felici past…