minding my own stitches

Monday, August 24, 2015

FO: Vanilla Bean Striped Socks

Pattern: Vanilla Bean Striped Socks by Emily O'Grady

Yarn: Shelridge Farms 80/20 Fingering (white) plus sock yarn leftovers: Anzula Squishy (pink), Sokkusu O (orange, red), Manos Del Uruguay Alegria (red), Studio June Super Cash Sock (red, butterscotch, brown), Wandering Cat Alley Cat Sock (red barn, tea time, raspberry beret), Studio June Sock Luck (pink), Wandering Cat Top Cat (sandalwood, black orchid), Studio June Sydney Sock (red), Loopy Ewe Solid Series (yellow), Pagewood Farms Alyeska (red)

Needles: 2.00 mm

Modifications: Worked toe up, increasing to 70 sts with afterthought heel, with eight rounds per colour joined with Russian Joins. Next time I'll cast on more stitches to make toe less pointy and I'll skip the slipped stitches in the toe box.

Comments: These socks make me ridiculously happy; they're just so bright and colourful. It's always amazing to me that you can combine all these non-matching colours and it just works! And Gavin likes them too - which is really saying something. In fact, I've been directed to make a similar pair for him with shades of blue, green and grey accompanied by white stripes! Shouldn't be a problem - I'm in no danger of running out of sock yarn scraps! There's enough in the shoe box for probably a dozen more pairs of scrappy socks.

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Year of Projects 5: Week 8

KNIT. SOCK. LOVE. : BFF • Clandestine • Cusp • German Stockings • Gothic Spire • Hedera • In and Out • Lissajous • Marilinda • Mona • Monkey • Pointelle • Rhombus • Sake • Stalagmite • Stricken • Thelonious • Twisted Flower • Wedge

COOKIE A SOCK CLUB: June #1 • June #2 • August #1 • August #2 • October #1 • October #2 • December #1 • December #2

VANILLA SOCKS FOR CHARITY: July • August • September • October • November • December • January • February • March • April • May • June

Yeah, despite my promise to finish the heels on my July Vanilla Bean Striped Socks, I still haven't got around to that. Apparently I need a kick in the pants! Oh well, I promise - cross my heart and hope to die - to do them today. Definitely!

At least I remembered to bring my August Wide Rib Socks home from work this week. As you can see from the photo, sock one is done and sock two is on the needles. I had a brief moment of panic when I suspected I was running short of yarn on sock one, but the admin office postal scale confirmed that I should get sock two done with a couple of grams to spare!

The jury is still out on the colourway. It's still loud but I don't hate it. Gavin says it reminds him of a stretchy metal watchband strap, which is kind of interesting. It's also interesting to see how the colourway settles down into wider stripes through the gusset where I have all those extra stitches in the round. I think I'd have preferred the whole sock like that, but it is what it is.

Much of my knitting time in the last week has been spent on the second pattern for the Cookie A Sock Club - Darjeeling Socks. Now that sock one is off the needles I'll admit to liking it more than I did before... or more accurately, disliking it less than I did before. I still don't think I like it enough not to frog them once they're done. The fit is really problematic! That's a discussion to be had and a decision to be made next week; sock two should be off the needles by then.

It's hard to believe that summer is almost over, but the CNE started this weekend and that's a sure sign! Gavin and I are thinking of going next weekend. I'd like to see a HorsePower Live show, might check out the Arts, Crafts & Hobbies Pavilion, the Gourmet Kitchen Pavilion, and grab an Ice Cream Waffle. And then just walk around and people watch!

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Year of Projects Year 5 Week 7

Of course I did finish my Green Gable Socks ... and aren't they lovely? Although I didn't like the yarn's original "lemongrass" colourway, I'm pleased as punch with the kelly green I got after an immersion dye with Wilton Icing Color. So that's the first of two August Sock Club patterns done!

And my July Vanilla Bean Striped Socks are also off the needles, awaiting afterthought heels. I promise to get to these this week! These are knit entirely from scraps, with Russian joins at the colour changes, so there isn't much finishing to do except the heels.

I'm making good progress on my August Charity socks - vanilla ribbed socks. I'm just about to turn the heel on the first sock. You'll just have to take my word on this; I left this project in my desk drawer at work on Friday.

Last but not least I've made a start on the second of the August Club patterns, Darjeeling Socks. I've swatched, and I've ripped back three times, and enough's enough. These may end up being the most ill-fitting socks I've ever knit. Hopefully when I get the first sock of the needles I like it better on my foot. If not, I'll soldier on, post finished pics and then frog to reclaim the yarn. What an awful thought!

We've just got back from a weekend spent with friends at their Lake Erie cottage. I'm a little sunburnt, a little overtired, but getting out of the city somehow makes a weekend feel twice as long. Now I just need to get caught up on my chores!

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Year of Projects 5 Week 6

destined to be ribbed socks

No finished socks yet, but soon. Progress on my July Vanilla Bean Striped socks is slow but steady. I'm about halfway through the second sock tube and then all's that left is the two afterthought heels. It remains to be seen how long I can avoid the finishing of those!

For my August charity socks there's a multicolour yarn in my stash that has fought every pattern I've ever attempted with them. Time to cry "uncle" and knit the yarn up as a pair of vanilla ribbed socks. A K4P2 rib I think - I'm got a hankering for some wide ribbing! The yarn cake looks busy and barf-y doesn't it? But I think it'll settle down nicely once knit. I'm looking forward to seeing how they come out.

After overdyeing the August club yarn I went ahead and cast on Gable Socks. It's a lovely pattern but it's uncomfortably similar to Alice Yu's Shur'tugal Socks. Honestly, I'm not very happy about being presented with the Gable Socks pattern as an "original" design available exclusively to paid club members! Not much I can do about it, so I'll just keep my head down and knit. Over the past week I've knit sock one entirely and knit well past the heel of sock two. Shouldn't be too much longer now.

The second pattern for the Cookie A sock club August shipment is Darjeeling. At the moment I'm considering knitting these with a couple of skeins of CoBaSi yarn that I picked up the other day. This pattern's going to be a challenging fit so an elastic yarn might help. The pattern photo clearly shows the sock pulled overly tight at the beginning of each "leaf" and puffing out at the end of each eyelet row and above the heel flap. I need to put my thinking cap on to see if there are any adjustments I can make to mitigate the fit issues.

It's another beautiful summer day in Toronto, so it's time for me to get outside and enjoy the weather. I can't believe it's August already! Where does the time go?

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Year of Projects 5 Week 5

Realizing that I'd done the reverse yarn overs incorrectly was a set back last week. And no, they're not difficult, it was just a dumb mistake. Must Read All Instructions More Carefully!!! But finally these Revolution Socks are done. And just in the nick of time ahead of the release of the August Club patterns tomorrow. The pattern was a fun and interesting knit, but I'm not particularly fond of the finished socks. They are just too hole-y in my opinion. Maybe if my feet and legs were more tanned they'd look better?

The yarn - Socky-Talky by The Dye-Guy - was lovely to work with. It's soft, smoothy and pleasingly plump and springy. Hopefully it washes and wears well without pilling! And I'm very happy with the colour too - lots of subtle variations in the purples without any pooling. The yardage was extremely generous too! Although this pair of socks used 104 grams of yarn, I still have almost 30 grams left!

August club yarn arrived late last week and what a disappointment that was! It's yellow which is not good for me; I'm generally not a fan of most shades of yellow. But this is a particularly awful shade of yellow - a dull, dirty yellow with greenish overtones, sinus infection mucous colour. Another Raveler compared it to "Gastric Suction" ...... eeeeew!!

No sooner had I unwrapped it, I rewrapped it. It's just too ugly to see the light of day in my home. I tried posting it for sale or trade within the club but after reading the many posts from others with similar feelings about the yarn I quickly realized that there was little chance of finding a buyer. Besides making the arrangements and sorting out the shipping is a bit painful. So I deleted my sale or trade post and contemplated my next steps.

Why not overdye it? Gavin suggested. Good thinking! So that's exactly what I did yesterday evening. I googled this tutorial and followed it step-by-step exactly as demonstrated. When I overdyed the pink socks in February/March I used a microwave method, however I prefer this stove top method - I felt more confident and more in control, particularly as I was able to obsessively check and adjust the dye bath temperature with a meat thermometer. It certainly worked like a charm. The dye bath was completely exhausted and the overdid yarn rinses entirely clear. Thanks to a teal shade of Wilton Icing Color, the awful yellow yarn is now a much more palatable green. Admittedly the final green is brighter and yellower than I had hoped but at least I don't hate the colour now. Much better!

In the meantime I'm plugging away at my second Vanilla Beans Striped sock. With any luck I'll have another finished pair of socks to show you next week!

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Year of Projects 5 Week 4

stretching a size 7 sock onto my huge foot

KNIT. SOCK. LOVE. : BFF • Clandestine • Cusp • German Stockings • Gothic Spire • Hedera • In and Out • Lissajous • Marilinda • Mona • Monkey • Pointelle • Rhombus • Sake • Stalagmite • Stricken • Thelonious • Twisted Flower • Wedge

COOKIE A SOCK CLUB: June #1 • June #2 • August #1 • August #2 • October #1 • October #2 • December #1 • December #2

VANILLA SOCKS FOR CHARITY: July • August • September • October • November • December • January • February • March • April • May • June

For the last week I've been knitting monogamously on the second pattern for the Cookie A Sock Club June shipment - Revolution Socks. After receiving notice that the August yarn and pattern bundle will ship early, I'm extra motivated to get this pair of the needles.

The pattern is very lacy - which is not my cup of tea - but they're being knit to give away so hopefully the recipient likes the pattern. The right sock is a mirror of the left; I like that. On the other hand the right sock uses reverse yos; I'm not so enthusiastic about those. As warned in the stitch legend, those backwards yos really want to creep across the adjacent stitches to the right of them so you have to slow down a bit to separate the stitches into the correct order.

Why reverse the yos? Here's what Ysolda Teague has to say:

The direction in which the yarn is wrapped around the needle affects the size of hole created by a yarn over. If you are working on a project that has lots of yarn overs between different types of stitches you may want to swatch and alter the yarn over directions so that your yarn overs are of a uniform size.

Haven't we all encountered situations where one or more yos look sloppy compared to the rest of the fabric? Maybe this is the answer? Particularly when a yo falls between a knit and a purl stitch!

Good thing this blog post has me rereading the reverse yarn over instructions from Ysolda's blog .... I've just realized that I've worked everyone of them incorrectly by knitting into the front leg on the following row. Instead those reverse yarn overs must be knit into the back leg to avoid twisting the stitch. And that certainly explains that niggling feeling that I've been having - that the right sock is knitting up smaller than the left. Twisting all those stitches would definitely make it smaller!

So once I finish grocery shopping and laundry, I guess I'll be ripping the second sock back to the cuff and starting over! Oh well, at least I'm not too far into sock two! And thank goodness for another small blessing: sock one just used regular yarn overs.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Year of Projects 5 Week 3

I'm pleased to report that I've got the first pair of socks for the Cookie A Sock Club June Shipment completed. And more than a little relieved.

The pattern is Apollonia, and I can't say I enjoyed it much - entirely too much purling, too many YO eyelets, a pattern that ends partway on the instep and ends with plain stockinette foot and toe, and a shortish leg with no simple way to lengthen it - nope, not really my thing. It's a nice enough result but the knitting felt very tedious.

The yarn is "Purple Rain" from Knitting Notions, and I can't say that I enjoyed that much either. The purple is so dark and so intense that it is actually blinding. "Loud" is what Gavin calls the colour. The pattern barely shows up unless you really peer at it, and you might want to get some sunglasses before you attempt that. Knitting at night or in low light was impossible. And it's a light fingering - quite thin - with no nylon so I'm not confident about how well these socks will wear.

Fortunately a coworker paused at my desk to admire the sock pattern and yarns so the finished socks have already found a new home.

With those socks off the needles it was time to cast on the second pair of socks for the Cookie A Sock Club June Shipment. This pattern is Revolution. So far the knitting is more interesting than the other pattern, although those six K3togs every fourth round are painful. Thank goodness those are carbon fibre needles, or I'd have snapped 'em by now! This pattern still has too many YO eyelets for my taste but we'll see what it looks like once it's knitted a little further. The yarn is Socky Talky from The Dye Guy who is a local dyer. The colourway is "Scottish Heather" ... still purple but I like this purple way more! A friend picked out the yarn asking that I knit a pair of socks for her Mom's caregiver, so these will be given away too!

My Vanilla Bean Striping socks for my July Charity Socks list are a bit further along too. The first tube is knitted and awaits its afterthought heel. The second sock hasn't been started yet. No love for Rhombus this week, but I hope to turn my attention to them as soon as I've got Revolution socks off the needles.

It's swelteringly hot here in Toronto. Is it wrong to have Freezies for lunch? Hope you're having a great weekend and see you next week!