Year of Projects 6: Week 51

The moving truck has been booked for next Saturday. At this point almost everything has been moved to Lake Erie; we're just living without our large furniture! It sure will be nice to have a rug in the living room, along with a couch, ottomans and recliners. At the moment we're living on patio furniture with a bare floor! Takes me back to my student days :)



Both "Syncopation Socks" are done. It's a lovely, super simple free pattern which I highly recommend. It's easy to read your knitting to keep track of where you are, so you really don't need to reference the pattern much at all. And the resulting knitted fabric has an interesting sinuous look to it which makes it very attractive. Because the pattern is sort of ribbed, the finished sock is stretchy and fits well. Nice! I hope the birthday boy likes them!

Immediately after finishing them I cast on another vanilla-ish sock - Petty Harbour Socks - for my brother who is apparently in desperate need of more handknit socks. The yarn is a non-wool bamboo blend sock yarn - SRK On Your Toes Bamboo - that was given to me some time ago. The Warm Hands Network prefers socks with 75% wool content, so this yarn was no good for them. I think my brother will like it though. It's a very inoffensive khaki colour. And if I happen to finish these socks in June, they would qualify for the June "Green" KAL in the SolidSocks group on Ravelry. That might be overly optimistic though!

Thanks one and all for your kind comments about my Etsy shop. Response to the Canada Day bags has continued to be strong, so now I'd better plan so more designs to feature once Canada Day is past. I have a few fun ideas :)

Now that we're downsizing into a smaller home I thought I'd better start a yarn diet and knit through much of the stash that I've moved to Lake Erie. Of course, that was before I dropped in at Creative Yarns in Scarborough. They are moving - the bakery next door wants to expand into their space - so much of the yarn was on sale. I picked up several 50gr skeins of Shelridge Farms 80/20 merino/nylon in solid colours. There are several colourwork sock patterns in my queue, and maybe I'll get to some of them in the next year of projects!

Just two weeks left in Year 6 of A Year of Projects. If you're interested in joining the group, then please check us out on Ravelry. The idea is that you make a tentative plan for your knitting for the upcoming year, and then work through that list and blog your progress on Sundays. Your list can be detailed (or not) and there are no knitting police. My tentative plan last year was to knit a pair of socks for charity every month and check out more intricate sock patterns from a variety of designers. I'd pretty much give myself a C- or a D on my performance last year. I did better when my lists were more structured - like knit every pattern in a pattern book. So that's food for thought for next year's list.

Year of Projects 6: Week 48

What a bad blogger I've been! It's been a struggle through the last several weeks of moving back and forth. Seems like most Sundays were finding me somewhere without access to a computer and/or internet. I tried blogging from my tablet but couldn't get the pictures to upload. *sigh*

All that being said, I think the worst is behind me. These days we're in Selkirk at Lake Erie pretty much full time with all our gear. We still need to move a couple of totes of small stuff and then the large stuff by moving van from Toronto before the house sale closing at the end of June.

Still, there has been knitting. I did cast on Somewhere Socks in a variety of neutral coloured sock yarn scraps. So far I'm loving them! The colourwork pattern is achieved with slipped stitches rather than stranding which really snugs up the pattern so be warned - cast on a larger size than you think! And all those colour changes will leave me with a ton of ends to weave in but I think this sock is so fun that it's worth it! Knitting this pattern is completely satisfying my urge for colourwork. And don't you find colourwork addictive? I'll be thinking of putting my knitting down and then I think, wait, let's see how the next colour looks.... and then the next, and the next.

Those socks were interrupted by a special request from Gavin's best friend who asked for a pair of hand knit socks in my choice of a masculine pattern in "KLM blue". I was lucky to find this light blue yarn on sale at Studio June's Etsy shop and decided on "Syncopation Socks" - a pattern that's been in my faves for quite a while. It's a free pattern and super simple that knits up to quite an attractive effect. I highly recommend it. I need to get a move on with sock two, as these will already be late for the actual birthday. Not that the birthday boy would know as he's been travelling out of the country for the last few weeks and we won't likely see him for another ten days at least.

Speaking of Etsy, I opened my very own Etsy shop quite some time ago but never really had much time to devote to it until now. I've started adding project bags, particularly bags in celebration of Canada's upcoming 150th birthday. As well I started running an ad on Ravelry in some of the Canadian knitting groups. The response has been overwhelming! I'm thrilled to see things start to take off and hope to devote a lot more time to it. At the moment I only ship to Canada, however, if you really want something let me know through an Etsy conversation and I'll ship it anywhere in the world. And if you want something specially designed for you or you group I can do that too. /end shameless self promotion

So that's it for me this week. In the coming days my focus will be on completing the Syncopation Socks in time for our next meeting with the birthday boy. Gavin is surfing world class waves in Costa Rica next week, so I'll have lots of quiet time to knit!

Year of Projects 6: Week 44

It's possible that I'm catching up. Although it's tenuous and things could go off the rails at any moment. The house was cleaned, staged and listed. Now we're at the cottage while the realtor schedules showings and Open Houses. At least now there's enough of our gear at the cottage that we can function normally. Pretty soon I'll have to stop calling it "the cottage" ... it'll just be home!

Last night I finished my Fidget Socks. It's a nice little pattern, perfect for busy yarn and super easy. A bit yarn hungry though. I knit these toe up as written, and used every last bit of yarn. The legs are not as long as I'd like but that's all she wrote. It'd help if my feet weren't so long.

And if you're wondering, no that's not a trick of the light - one sock is dramatically darker than the other. I noticed when I caked the yarn that the light shades and the most contrast in the variegation was concentrated in the first half of the skein. I am somewhat annoyed by this. Am I right to think that a knitter ought to be able to make a matching pair of socks from a skein labelled as "sock yarn"?

It's the first time I've made a Fish Lips Kiss Heel with adjustments to increase the stitch count on the bottom of the foot in order to lengthen the heel cup. It works really well and fits very nicely. I increased 10 sts - my heels are POINTY - but I think 6-8 sts would have done the trick. Still, they fit well, so it's all good.

I'm happy to have these off the needles because the knitting was getting a bit boring. Now that I've moved all the yarn stash to the cottage both Gavin and I have had a chance to see exactly how much sock yarn I have. LOTS. Not many full skeins but three shoeboxes full of sock yarn scraps. Now I'd better get knitting it! I plan to start with Somewhere Socks. I spread all the yarn out on the floor and have organized two possible colour combinations. One combination is made up of six different shades of light to dark neutrals. I'm going to start with those. Another combination is made up of ten different shades of blues and greens. If I'm not bored of the pattern after the first pair, then perhaps I'll make a second blue/green pair.

It's a cold, windy and rainy Sunday hereabouts. Is that good for a real estate Open House? Or are people likely to stay home? I guess we'll see. Fingers crossed that the home buyers are out today!

Year of Projects 6: Week 41

As expected Albert de Moncerf socks are done. I couldn't resist the morning sun so I took photos in the front hallway - lots of sun and contrast and glowing white winter legs! Eek!

It's a really, really nice pattern. Just the right amount of cabling. Just enough chart to keep it interesting but not so much to require full attention. A really squishy resulting fabric that clings snugly. And it's free! I highly recommend it!

I've knit this pair exactly as written and the resulting pair weighs 86 grams. Considering that I started out with slightly less than a skein - 90 grams - it couldn't have worked out much better. If I'd had more yarn at my disposal I'd have added more length to the leg. The leg is stretched out in the photo but tends to squish down lower towards the ankle when left to its own devices.

The yarn is Red Sock Blue Sock Basic Sock yarn. I picked it up at the Toronto Knitter's Frolic a few years back. The base has since been discontinued. Although I loved the dye job on the yarn I didn't enjoy knitting it and wouldn't have purchased it again. It's quite thin resulting in a thin-ish fabric even when knit on 2mm needles, so that's not good. As well, it's not very smooth and it has a lot of twist so the stitch definition isn't great. Oh well, I've knit all of it up now so that's water under the bridge.

I'd definitely consider buying from Red Sock Blue Sock again because the dye job is lovely. The photos don't do it justice, but the colourway is a lovely tonal blend of blues and greens that I just couldn't resist. I picked it up, snuggled it, put it down, picked it up again, walked around the shop with it, put it down again, and then I gave in and bought it. Nicely semi-solid so it doesn't pool or compete against the pattern, but still gorgeous and interesting. Maybe I'll like one of their new bases better?

With this pair off the needles I've been devoting my time to my Fidget Socks. Another free pattern, but this one is so simple that it's on the boring side. The first sock is coming along nicely; I'm nearly ready to start the heel. But I'm tempted to cast on another sock. I happened across this pattern for Somewhere Socks and was thrilled to find a coupon code to download it free on the first day it was released. I think it'll be fun to knit up with yarn scraps, so I just need to look through all my oddments and make a plan. Mostly I'm trying to avoid starting them so that my concentration remains focussed on the socks already on the needles!

That's my knitting update for this week. The next several weeks are going to be super busy. We're planning to list our house at the end of the month so I need to deep clean, de-clutter and stage room by room. Fingers crossed the process goes smoothly and quickly!

Year of Projects 6: Week 40

Things are progressing nicely with my Albert de Moncerf socks - sock one is done (as you can see) and sock two is at the heel. No reason that this pair shouldn't be complete by the end of the week. It's a very nice squishy pattern.

As I mentioned last week, the leg is four repeats - as suggested in the designer's instructions -  which results in a leg that's a bit shorter than I'd like. Although I was tempted to add another repeat, I held off since I only had 90 grams of yarn to complete the socks. That turned out to be the right decision... my finished first sock weighs 43 grams so there won't be much left over when the second sock is off the needles.

Although the pattern looks a bit involved, it's really quite simple and easily memorized. There's a bit of cabling - just enough to keep it interesting but not enough to slow you down or make the fabric inflexible. All the rest of it is just knits and purls. It's the first sock pattern from designer Caoua Coffee that I've ever knit, but it certainly won't be the last. It's very well written. The fact that I made no mods whatsoever to the pattern tells you something, doesn't it?

At the same time I was scanning through the Ravelry databases looking for a pattern that would show off the variegation in my new skein of Zen Garden sock yarn. Seems to me a simple pattern, like Fidget which uses slip stitches to break up pooling, is a good choice to make the best of all the interesting variegation. And doesn't it make an interesting textured tweedy pattern?

This is another free pattern. It's a pretty simple knit but I suspect it's going to be pretty yarn hungry. That's why I decided to knit it toe-up as written, rather than convert it to cuff down. Working toe up I can finish the leg as soon as I get to about 45-50 grams used. In this case though I have already modified the pattern. I added one increase to begin the top of the foot so that I could add a matching purl column at the right side of the chart to mirror the left side.

All things are coming up green here, including my knitting... must be spring!

Year of Projects 6: Week 39

Shortly after publishing my post last Sunday I went ahead and cast on Albert de Moncerf socks. It's a lovely pattern and I'm enjoying it tremendously. Did I mention it's a free pattern? I've turned the heel and started the gusset decreases on my first sock. If I'd had my druthers I'd have added another repeat or two to the leg, but this is the leftover Red Sock Blue Sock Basic Sock yarn after supplementing my Crest socks so I'm afraid I'd run short if I started down that path!

Life got a lot busy again towards the end of the week, so not much more knitting got done. A bit of stash enhancement did happen though!

This lovely skein of Zen Garden Serenity 20 came to me in a trade. I met someone named Amy in my painting class, and when she discovered that I knit on Facebook she offered to trade yarn for a couple of my small paintings. So it turns out that Amy is Amy R Singer. Small world, huh? She's absolutely lovely! And she can write-off yarn purchases as a business expense. Now that's living the dream! Time to swan through the sock pattern database to decide what to knit!

While at the Purple Purl I also picked up these four balls of Jawoll Superwash sock yarn for Feny socks. I didn't think I'd get away with a 50 gram ball of each colour so I went with two of each. I expect there's gonna be a lot leftover. I'm still in two minds though about whether to knit matching socks or fraternal twins by reversing the colour scheme. Opinions?

In other news, spring isn't here yet but we're expecting double-digit temperatures next week so it's not far off. I CANNOT WAIT!

That's it for me today... must run now, I'll catch up with everyone later. Have a great Sunday!!

Year of Projects 6: Week 38

It was three weeks ago that I apologized about the week getting away from me. Looks like an entire month has gotten away from me. Yeah, not enough hours in the day!

Fingers crossed that there's a light at the end of the tunnel though! Looks to me like I'm starting to catch up on several fronts.

On the knitting front, Gavin's Crest socks are finally done and they are awesome!!! I cast on the first sock in April of last year. It doesn't usually take me this long to make socks but I struggled with these. For much of the time these went in and out of hibernation simply because the pattern is so chart-y and attention-intensive. Not good work knitting. Not good travel or commuter knitting. Not good TV knitting. Not good stress-relief knitting. And then for the last few weeks I tried to kid myself that I could knit the second sock while binge watching Netflix which resulted in at least three major tink-backs to fix wherever I'd gone off the rails. And isn't it typical that I won't learn my lesson from the first setback, or even the second!!! Apparently I AM that delusional!

The Artfil Belle yarn was a gift from Frieda at Restless Needles. It's a gorgeous tonal blue green that made me think of water, so it was the perfect choice for a wavy pattern like Crest. It's got a lovely soft feel to it and was an absolute pleasure to knit. I was going to run short so I supplemented by working alternate rows with a similar colourway of Red Sock Blue Sock Basic sock yarn on the foot from the end of the gusset decreases to the beginning of the toe box - you can see it in the photo. It's a much rougher, thinner and more unevenly textured yarn. It's not an awful mismatch and it was the best I could do. I finished the socks with just a couple of yards leftover so supplementing was definitely necessary. Here's hoping that the mismatch is less obvious after a couple of washes and wears.

So this morning I find myself with nothing on my needles. Okay, to be perfectly honest Willow Ware socks are languishing in hibernation but they're staying in hibernation until I am fully retired because of its crazy intarsia charts. My plan had been to cast on Twisted Flower socks in a blue colour of CoBaSi sock yarn for the March KAL in the SolidSocks group on Ravelry but I don't think that's going to happen. There is absolutely no chance that I'll start and finish them in time to participate in the KAL - my schedule is improving but it's not that wide open! And after all those tinks and reknits on Crest I'm not particularly keen to start another chart-y and attention-intensive pattern. Mostly I feel like casting on another fairly vanilla sock with the leftover Red Sock Blue Sock sock yarn which is already caked, so that's what I'm going to do. Albert de Moncerf, I think!

Tomorrow's the first day of spring and I CANNOT WAIT! I hope the snow's behind us because I want to garden!! Happy Sunday everyone!