Knitting in Color

Listen to Your Wanderlust Socks

2012-02-26T17:38:00.002-07:00

I nearly abandoned these socks several times. First of all, I'm not sure I'm loving the colors I chose. I like them more after duplicate stitching the purple but you can't t really see the purple from a distance.

Then I considering abandoning the project because it was turning out really wide. I finally decided to change the sole pattern and do vertical stripes because they really draw the fabric in. I missed the cool medallion on the sole of the foot in the original pattern though. As you can see the socks are still slouchy around the ankle but I can live with that.

The pattern is Stephanie van der Linden's Listen To Your Wanderlust Socks and I used size 1 (US) dpns. I used some Elann's Sock it to Me in Gold (another reason I considered abandoning the pattern as it is not very soft) and some beautiful Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Sassafras (one of my Scavenger Hunt prizes).

Anyway, I'm happy to finish a project that was started in July! I'm even happier to have knitted up all my full skeins of Sock it to Me yarn.

Harvest Dew Socks and Trenza Mitts

2012-02-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

Only one more week of February and even better, one more week until Sock Madness begins! I had hoped to finish up a bunch of old FOs before Sock Madness but only managed one - Stephanie van der Linden's Listen to Your Wanderlust Socks. I'll have a photo shoot for those this weekend. Until then, here are two more FOs.

These are the Harvest Dew Socks by RoseHiver. This free pattern for slip stitch socks is great for those wild and crazy yarns in your stash. I used size 1 (US) dpns and one of my Scavenger hunt prizes, a skein of Miss Babs Yummy in the Day at Powell's colorway. When I received this yarn I had absolutely no idea what I'd do with it so I'm glad I found this pattern. I only have one more yarn to knit of the 10 yarns I received as prizes in July/August.

I have been considering making myself a cabled sweater out of Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. I knit up these fingerless mitts to test it out for cables and it came through with flying colors. In fact, DH has asked me for a hoodie with a zipper using Cotton-Ease as well.

These are the Trenza Mitts from a freebie pattern I found on Ravelry using the Cherry color of Cotton-Ease. I went all the way down to size 4 (US) dpns to fit my hands and made the ribbed cuff longer.

Snowy Woods Socks by Robyn Gallimore

2012-02-19T16:51:00.001-07:00

I currently have 3 FOs to show you but I think these socks deserve a post of their own. These are the Snowy Woods Socks by Robyn Gallimore (RobynRedBird on Ravelry) who has probably 20 spectacular colorwork socks patterns available for sale. I have a few more of her sock patterns printed out and may go ahead and buy them all one of these days. I've previously knit her Antioch Socks, Winter Dreams Socks and a pair of the Holly Berry Socks.

Sorry the truck is so muddy in this photo but the entire outdoors is mud here right now. I used size 2.5 mm dpns and Drops Fabel in Cream and Barking Dog Yarns Achilles. The Achilles was one of my Scavenger Hunt prizes and I was thrilled to get to choose my own color - this is Navajo Sky. The theme for January was Flora and Fauna related socks at Sock Knitter's Anonymous on Ravelry and I love the snowflakes and trees on these socks.

These socks feature a purl ridge cuff, star toe, and colorwork that extends down the heel. My one modification was to add a stitch to either side of the heel so that the checkerboard pattern wouldn't be disrupted when I picked up the stitches. It still looks a little wonky there but other than that I'm happy with them. They fit great. I tested and re-tested the Achilles yarn to make sure it wouldn't run and stain the white yarn and it came through with flying colors.

Here you get a bonus shot of the Panda Soy (top shelf) and Panda Cotton I've been stashing.

Two Quick Projects for Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

I decided to make some quick gifts for DH for Valentine's Day. The hat is from the free pattern A Hat Fit For a Boyfriend and is knit in Cascade 220 on size 8 (US) needles. I added 10 sts and after reading some of the Ravelry project pages, knit 6.5" before starting the decreases to fit his large head. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will fit and cover his ears.

I also knit him another pair of boring thick socks. I am trying to switch out his sock drawer with only machine washable socks; I've had it with him felting his wool hand knit socks in the dryer so I'm trying some new yarns. For these socks I used two strands of Crystal Palace Maizy which is 82% corn fiber and 18% nylon. I used two strands held together - one in the Turf colorway and one in the Menswear colorway. I had trouble getting the color right in the photographs. I'm not sure what I think about Maizy - perhaps it is all in my mind but I felt like I had a fine layer of cornstarch on my hands while knitting with this yarn.

I didn't manage to corral DH for a photoshoot of two pairs of socks last weekend so it is rescheduled for next weekend. I hope to finish a third pair, Stephanie van der Linden's Listen to Your Wanderlust, by then as well.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

January/February Color Knitting Links

2012-02-06T16:34:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been enjoying knitting while watching video podcasts. I really like the ones with more than one knitter because that means more FOs to show and more stash acquisition. I haven't worked my way through this list of all the knitting video podcasts all yet but I really like The Knitgirllls and Knit 1 Heart Too.

FREE PATTERNS

The talented Rosehiver will have another great free stranded sock pattern available Feb. 28 - Liseron. I really like that she puts the bolder colorwork pattern on the sole of the socks.

Purl Bee offers this cute little children's Fair Isle Hat.

I've been to Jessica Tromp's excellent web site before but I don't remember all the great colorwork mitten charts HERE. I hope to have some time to knit a few pairs after Sock Madness starting with these Polar Bear Mittens.

The Norwegian Snowflake Scarf uses two colors of Dale Falk, a sport weight yarn.

I really like this Drops Alpaca Pullover and it has been made by a lot of knitters so you can see it in different colors and on different shapes.

MISCELLANEOUS

I absolutely love stories like this! KnitRiot filled a wall in front of a CA homeless shelter with colorful knitted items for anyone to take. Check out the bundles of baby blankets on the ground. They also hung knitted mittens and caps from a tree in front of an elementary school. HERE is the KnitRiot blog.

Laurie Baity volunteers for a wildlife rescue group and they use knitted or crocheted nests for orphaned baby wildlife. Now apparently some other wildlife rehab groups are also asking for donations of these knitted nests. There are patterns HERE (scroll down to check out the baby bunnies using one of the nests!) and the Ravelry page is HERE.

HERE is a blog post about a visit to Norway and Finland that has lots of great photos of wildlife. Continue reading to see photos of various grocery stores that sell yarn. I love it and I definitely think they should start selling yarn in US grocery stores!

And finally, HERE is a heart-warming article about a knitter who gave knitting books to her Cleveland library and knit items for the homeless shelter. After she died her friends decided to take her huge stash and use it to knit for charity.

TUTORIALS AND TECHNIQUES

Here's an interesting post from Asplund on how he does stranded garter stitch.

Mary Ann at Two Strands offers a brilliant way to make your own mitten blockers with variations for rounded and pointy mittens.

I needed a quick gift and these free Emilee Dee Mitts using size 4 dpns fit the bill. The recipient said her favorite color was raspberry and this color of Elann's Pure Alpaca (DK weight) was the closest I could manage. I love finishing an FO in a day!

Next up to show you will be a pair of Robyn Gallimore stranded socks. They're actually finished but I need DH to do a photo shoot.

My Love Affair with Panda Soy

2012-01-30T23:36:00.004-07:00

Panda Soy by Crystal Palace is a soy/bamboo/nylon blend. Sadly it was recently discontinued but I bought a ton on sale. It launders well and is very soft and elastic and I plan to make myself many, many pairs of socks with it.

Here are the Soybean Socks (free pattern especially for Panda Soy) done in Panda Soy Solids in the Pewter color. I used size 1 dpns and added two extra pattern repeats to make the cuff longer.

These look loose because they were wet during the photo shoot but they fit perfectly and I'll wear them often.

I thought DH should share in the joy of Panda Soy socks so I made him some as well. He doesn't like thin socks so I doubled some Panda Soy Print in the Hazelnut colorway. I used 56 sts and size 3 (US) dpns and I used a little less than 4 skeins.

I'm finishing up a pair of fingerless mitts in alpaca and then February is all about finishing up various unfinished projects.

How Not To Knit Faster

2012-01-23T12:47:00.002-07:00

In preparation for the Sock Madness speed knitting competition that starts next month, I've been trying to learn to knit faster. Most of my efforts have been for naught but a few might help.

First of all, I'm an English/American knitter who holds the yarn in my right hand. I guess the term is lever knitter. I call it "holding the right hand needle like a pencil" and I stick the needle under my armpit when using straight needles. Pretty inelegant but I can build up some speed because I am flicking instead of throwing. I'm not sure I'd call it ergonomic though - when I'm knitting a heavy stranded sweater my poor right hand has to hold the needle through the bulky sweater. Also, when I am using really large needles it can cause fatigue in my right thumb joint. HERE is an explanation of lever style knitting. The photos show how I strand the yarn over the tip of my right index finger (for flicking) and through my right hand fingers.

I decided to work on a test pair of socks. I picked a pattern that was used previously for Sock Madness in the first round. (The socks get more difficult as the competition progresses.) These are the free Mad Cow Socks knit in some old Elann's Sock It To Me (not my favorite yarn by any means) and 2.5 mm dpns. I knit these in less than two days but I wasn't able to keep track of how many actual knitting hours it took me - somewhere between 14 and 18 I guess. I keep bouncing up and down when knitting to do other things so it is hard to tell.

Here are a few of the things I learned about knitting faster.

WHAT WORKED

1. Switch to Continental. When I'm doing colorwork the stitches made with my left hand using continental style knitting are much faster. For the first Mad Cow sock I attempted to use continental knitting throughout. I did get more ladders and split stitches and I can't seem to sustain long bouts of continental knitting yet but it can surely help somewhere there is a long stretch of plain stockinette.

2. Read through the entire pattern!! Like a dummy I just started the Mad Cow Socks at the beginning of the pattern. I thought they were toe-up socks but then it turned out there were also instructions for cuff-down. I ended up ripping out the toe and starting them cuff-down because I'm always faster that way.

3. Minimizing movements. I notice when I do continental knitting the working needle does not go through the stitch before wrapping as far as when I do English knitting. So I've been trying to shorten the distance I push the right hand needle through and this seems to be helping. Check out this blog post HERE with videos of many of the world's fastest knitters and you'll see that they all have minimal movement in their fingers and wrists.

WHAT DID NOT WORK

1. Pushing myself. There is a fine line between speeding up my knitting and making a lot of mistakes. When I push myself to knit really fast my knitting gets sloppy and I end up taking more breaks. Instead for me it is best to just get into the flow instead of pushing myself to knit faster. Because I am not great at sitting still I started giving myself deadlines before I could get up and do something else i.e., finish turning the heel before I can go make dinner.

2. Knitting when tired. I really need to give up any knitting late at night immediately after the first error occurs.

3. Continental Purling. I've been trying a few methods including one of the Norwegian purling methods and I truly can't see how this will be faster. Most of them seem to involve multiple steps or moving my left hand over the knitting needle. In this instance, I know I'm faster using my right hand/English method.

4. Switching to a different type of dpn. I bought some Hiya Hiya metal dpns to test out. They should have worked better than my Inox/Prym coated metal dpns. The Hiya Hiya dpns seemed lighter and they were definitely warmer to the touch. They had a sharper tip as well. Mainly I noticed that I was missing the stitch outright more often as I was knitting along. I don't know why but my trusty old Inox dpns are my best choice. (Too bad they don't come in size 1 for some reason!) Blunter needles seem to work better for me.

5. Different needles altogether. I didn't try knitting with two circs and Magic Loop for these socks but I've done both methods in the last few months. I find I spend more time untangling the yarn strands from the dangling circs or loops than I could ever spend going from one dpn to the next.

Well there you have it. Do you have any tips for knitting faster?

Norwegian Rose Socks

2012-01-19T13:26:00.002-07:00

I have been actively trying more toe-up sock patterns lately but I'm still not convinced the method works better for people with narrow, long feet such as DH and myself. I have the ebook Toe-Up Socks for Every Body out from the library and I knit the Norwegian Rose Socks with the pretty Nordic colorwork.

These would have looked better if I'd done another rose pattern repeat but my gauge was getting tighter as I knit the socks and the socks were tight on my narrow feet to begin with. The heel is a short row heel with some ribbing on top.

I used size 0 and 1 (US) dpns and Stroll in Sapphire Heather and Knit Pick's Essential Solids (the precursor to Stroll) in Petunia.

Up next will be some musings on my various efforts to learn to knit faster.

Twisted Flower Socks

2012-01-10T13:18:00.001-07:00

I really hustled to finish knitting these socks in one week and my hands paid the price. Ouch! I may re-think taking on projects with twisted stitches in the future or at least try not to finish so quickly. The socks are Cookie A's Twisted Flower Socks from the book Knit.Sock.Love (also available as a single pattern).

Even though my hands are not happy my feet certainly are with the cashmere content in this yarn. It is String Theory Caper yarn and was one of my Scavenger Hunt prizes from last summer. I was asked what color I wanted and I just said any cool color and I was thrilled to receive yarn in my favorite color periwinkle.

The color is showing up blue in this close-up but really it is the perfect periwinkle color.

I already started a pair of stranded socks. It is such a relief to do stranded color knitting with two hands - the comfort of knitting that way is like a spa vacation for my aching hands.

One Last Thing

2011-12-31T16:25:00.003-07:00

Here are the Vellamo Socks (free pattern is HERE) - this was a very old UFO I recently found. They're knit toe-up with an afterthought heel. I used a vintage yarn, Brunswick Nylamb, which has a high nylon count. The yarn feels vaguely like acrylic but I've always kept my Nylamb stash because the socks wear like iron. In the photo the socks are still wet from blocking but I was in a hurry to add something to my 2011 project totals.

In 2011 I knit: 28 pairs of socks, 1 Christmas stocking, a bed for Bubbles, 1 pair of men's gloves, 1 pair of fingerless mitts, 1 turkey, two hats, and a headband for a total of 36 projects.

My favorite project for the year was by far the Snow Under Cedars Socks by Leslie Comstock. I enjoyed knitting them so much I plan to knit all her patterns.

My 2012 Knitting Resolutions:

1. Knit more challenging projects - I did too many boring and easy things this year. I am going to start Cookie A.'s Twisted Flower socks tomorrow to get the ball rolling.

2. Knit more stashbuster projects so my stash will be smaller in size by 2013. I think I'll try to keep one complex project and one stashbuster project on the needles at all times.

3. Complete the 26 Pair Plunge. It started last summer July and I'm already halfway done to knitting 26 pairs of socks by the deadline next summer.

4. Participate in Sock Madness this year. It is a speed knitting competition that takes place in March. I watched it last year and I have no delusions I can get to the final rounds (for instance, one Norwegian knitter last year knit a pair of socks in FOUR HOURS!) but I want to challenge myself and all the sock patterns designed for the competition are really great.

5. Knit an actual sweater! This seems more likely if we manage to return to Colorado where sweaters will make more sense.

6. Be MUCH more productive. I've kept records of knitting projects before and in 2003 for instance, I knit 4 Sweaters & Vests, 9 Pairs of Mittens, 6 Pairs of Socks & Slippers, 6 Scarves, 11 Hats & Headbands, 1 Pair of Gloves, and 2 Knitted Toys. Because 2 of those sweaters were Dale of Norway, one sweater was an Alice Starmore design, and the gloves were Sanquhar gloves on tiny 000 dpns, I estimate that year I was about 3 times as productive as I was this year. So I need to stop slacking off.

Happy New Year to all! Thanks so much for reading my blog and for giving me a reason to take more photos of Bubbles.

Drip Candles and Butterflies

2011-12-27T14:39:00.001-07:00

I wish someone would write a book of knitting projects using all those little leftover colors of yarn that you end up with after finishing a stranded project. Even better, I wish the projects wouldn't require exact amounts of yarn so you wouldn't have to worry about running out of any one color.

The Drip Candles Socks from the book Think Outside the Sox would qualify. They are toe-up and they are stranded on the foot with a simple stitch pattern for the cuff. I used eight colors of leftover sock yarn (mostly semi-solids and solids) for mine. I highly recommend them and plan to make them again using size 1 dpns just for the heels and toes.

The next socks are Butterflies by Anniken Ellis who was a designer of the month on Sock Knitter's Anonymous on Ravelry. I used an off-white from the stash with Stroll Multi in the Paisley color.

Bubbles seems to approve of the new socks.

I will try to finish up at least one last project before the end of the year and I'll be back Saturday with my year-end totals and my 2012 knitting resolutions.

Orzival Socks

2011-12-13T17:55:00.000-07:00

I wish I had been able to photograph these socks so you could see the true color. The photo above (with my new Pottery Barn pillow) is the closest. The color is Poppy Red and the yarn is Panda Soy (bamboo/soy/nylon). Alas, Panda Soy was discontinued this year but fortunately I bought up quite a bit on sale. It is a bit splitty but has a lovely elasticity and is really really soft. I am looking forward to knitting with it again.

The pattern is Orzival Socks by Nicole Masson. I used size 1 (US) dpns and less than 2 skeins of yarn (probably about 1 1/2). I really love the fit; lately I've been tiring of knitting socks that were too wide for my feet.

Just a quick note - the Hippocampus Mittens KAL on Ravelry's Stranded forum now has a thread HERE. It doesn't start until the day after Christmas but people are already posting with their yarn choice ideas.

Christmas Knitting Links

2011-12-07T11:45:00.002-07:00

It looks like someone is snooping around the Christmas presents already!

Here are some quickie gloves I finished for DH - the yarn is Sunshine Yarn's Luxury Sock Yarn which has some cashmere content and the colorway is Coal Creek. I combined three patterns to make the wide thumb angle he needs. I'm going to do a hiking themed Christmas stocking for him again this year with some homemade energy bars and trail mix, these gloves and the socks shown previously, and a field guide.

FREE HOLIDAY KNITTING LINKS

HERE is a free PDF for a Dale of Norway Christmas stocking pattern booklet. All of the stockings are stranded and there is also a photo tutorial on making 2-color twisted cord for embellishment.

DROPS is doing their Christmas Advent Calendar of Patterns again this year and so far this month they've already unveiled two cool new free stranded sock patterns.

And if you want more free stranded Christmas stocking patterns, here are two I've linked to before. The Cascade Christmas Stockings use worsted weight yarn. So do the Spindleknitter's Christmas Stockings but the patterns are more colorful and elaborate.

Frankie Brown has several free patterns to add some knitting to homemade Christmas cards - Santa, Snowman, and Gingerbread House. Frankie also has this adorable Advent Garland pattern.

Spunknit offers these cute Knitted Snowmen that use sport weight yarn. I think the hats and scarves really make them adorable.

This Poinsettia Wreath by Maggie Pace uses felted Cascade 220 yarn.

This Christmas Story Dishcloth should be a quick stocking stuffer.

If your tree is looking kind of bare, HERE's a simple free Candy Cane Christmas ornament using I-cord. Also, PurlSoho has these cute Holiday Bird Ornaments and Torirot offers this free pattern for a felted Gingerbead Couple.

MISCELLANEOUS

Our next Stranded Forum KAL using the free Hippocampus Mitten pattern starts December 26. I'll put a thread up starting the KAL soon but you'll need to scrounge up two colors of fingering weight yarn. The original pattern uses a long self-striping pattern yarn. Everyone is free to join, there are no rules, and we'll have the designer on hand to answer any questions. These forum KALs are a perfect way to learn stranded color knitting as there will be many helpful members available to help you through the process.

Here's a heartwarming story about a woman who teaches male prisoners to knit in Maryland.

Feral Knitter has posted a summary of all her helpful technique posts on Fair Isle Knitting.

This has nothing to do with knitting but check out this huge bunny named Hampton! He is available for adoption in New Jersey and Bubbles say I have to do my best to resist his awesomeness.

ETA: To get the right link for the world's largest bunny Hampton.

Stupid Mistake

2011-11-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry for two posts in two days but I just found this blog post from a week ago that never got published.

About a week after finishing this pair of Thuja socks for DH (Knitty pattern is HERE), I found the second skein of gray yarn I purchased to knit them. I used Berroco Comfort which is a worsted weight acrylic/nylon blend that I hope won't be killed when DH accidentally puts the socks in a hot dryer. I'm not exceedingly fond of this yarn as it is kind of slack but I'll wait to decide to see how it washes and wears.

Anyway, where was the second skein of yarn? Exactly where the other yarn was stored of course. I could have sworn I looked for more yarn because I was surprised I was so far off on the yardage estimate. In desperation I used some navy Shine Sport for the rest of the socks. Oh well at least I have another holiday gift for DH.

Here are the Kazak Socks from Hunter Hammersen's Silk Road Socks book. (You can also buy the pattenr separately - it is a nice mindless pattern that is basically K2P2 ribbing throughout.) I received both the book and the yarn as a prize for the Sock Knitter's Anonymous Scavenger Hunt this summer. The yarn was really nice - Handwerks Sock Plus 8 in the Paprika color which is perfect for autumn.

Color Knitting Links - Thanksgiving Edition

2011-11-21T17:46:00.002-07:00

I adopted Payton the turkey from Farm Sanctuary because the way his head was tilted upwards cracked me up. Oddly enough, when I decided to knit a turkey for our Thanksgiving table he (she??) also ended up with a tilted head looking up. The free pattern is HERE and unlike many knitted toy patterns, everything is knit in the round. I used various scraps of worsted weight yarn and I added one tail feather.

NOVEMBER COLOR KNITTING LINKS

The the new book Knitting with Two Colors from Schoolhouse Press which will be available next month. The book bills itself as a "two-color knitting workshop for beginner to advanced knitters".

FREE PATTERNS

If I hadn't just finished knitting a turkey, I'd knit this Lion Brand wreath. You need to register to see it but it is a lovely wreath of felted leaves.

This classic Icelandic sweater uses unspun Lopi yarn.

Here is a free pattern for some Zigzag Mittens for those who love Missoni-inspired knits.

The Cozy Canuck Chullo pattern for kids uses Cascade 220.

Baikal is a stranded tam that uses Aran weight yarn.

HoHoHo is a reindeer Christmas stocking in five colors.

The skunk-themed Stinky Pink mittens are such fun.

MISCELLANEOUS

HERE is a fun article about how someone found a 150 year old Fair Isle cap, believed to be the oldest surviving example of Fair Isle knitting, on Ebay for 7.39 pounds. Pretty cool!

We're voting on a KAL on Ravelry's Stranded forum which will start December 26th. If you have any nominations for a pattern to knit, please go HERE and let us know your choice. So far the contenders are RoseHiver's Butterflies are Free Socks, Mary Ann Stephen's Zinnia Mittens from the new Twist Collective, and Knit Picks' Woodland Winter Mittens.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Holiday Knitting

2011-10-31T14:25:00.000-06:00

The best thing about knitting Christmas socks is that if you decide to only finish one sock, you can still find a use for it.

These weren't really turning me on plus the fit was too large. (You can see that I did a much longer gusset decrease to try to make them fit.) So instead I added an I-cord loop and am going to fill it with candy for a holiday gift. The pattern is free from Drops HERE and I used Cascade 220 from the stash and size 3 and 4 (US) dpns and the smallest pattern size.

Bubbles is more interested in napping than any holiday festivities.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Color Knitting Links & a few Halloween Projects

2011-10-24T15:51:00.000-06:00

Sorry I didn't post this earlier but there are still a few days to finish a Halloween knitting project.

HALLOWEEN FREE PATTERNS

The Witch Cats Hat uses two shades of orange and black DK weight yarn.

I love this Bathat! I am too busy with other projects unfortunately but I plan to make it next year. In lieu of knitting a hat, you can grab a plain black knit hat and add pipecleaners and eyes to make this cute spider hat.

The Scare Isle tam from Knitty features ghosts and many ghoulish colors.

This Zombie Hat is made with DK weight yarn and would be a great gift for all the zombie lovers in your life.

Not interested in a bat hat? How about these Batsy mittens?

Nevermore are socks inspired by the Edgar Allan Poe poem.

The Happy Halloween Fingerless Mitts use DK weight yarn.

FREE COLOR KNITTING PATTERNS

The Hold Your Seahorses sock pattern by RoseHiver uses two colors of sock yarn. I love the original colors used for these striking socks.

The Toast Wrap is a Sanquhar inspired colorwork cowl worked in fingering weight yarn.

Thanksgiving is on its way. I adore this cute little Tiny Turkey and may have to make one for my holiday table. Another knitted decoration is this bunch of Indian Corn.

The I Heart Mitts use two colors of fingering weight yarn.

The HoHoHo pattern is a really fun Christmas stocking knit in many colors of DK weight yarn.

I would definitely wear this Market Square Jacket knit in bulky weight yarn - but I'd have to change the colors. Also in the free ebook is this cute raglan sweater, the Park Place Pullover.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Here's the scariest picture I could come up with from the Quarai Ruins near Mountainair, NM.

Two Book Reviews

2011-10-20T16:52:00.000-06:00

ALICE STARMORE'S CHARTS FOR COLOR KNITTING

I honestly wasn't expecting to love this book as much as I do. I didn't even pre-order it from Amazon when I heard they were reprinting it but ended up adding it to my shopping cart recently when I needed an additional book to reach $25.

I have many books with color charts but this one is different I think. For one thing it is divided into sections by theme such as the Inner Landscape, Sea and Shoreline, Birds and Flowers and Far East. She includes Greek and Russian and Swedish motifs and some motifs that would be better for intarsia than stranding (due to float length). It really is one of the widest ranging books of charts I've ever seen.

She also has an chapter in the back of the book called A Word on Colour Knitting. One interesting thing she says in the chapter is that you should make sure to look at your color swatch from far away. That is a good point because if you look at the sweaters at her Virtual Yarns web site, the colors look different close up and far away. She also discusses how she adds colors and says that the number of colors in a design always relate to the size of the pattern.

For some odd reason my book naturally opens to page 31 which has a cute horizontal border of rabbits. Coincidence? The charts are divided into horizontal borders, allover patterns, vertical panels, and single motifs.

The one drawback of this book is that there is no indication of pattern length or width. You'll have to count it out yourself if you want to use a chart in your own design. Still I highly recommend this inexpensive and extremely useful book for all color knitters. Buy it!

CRAFT ACTIVISM

I received a review copy of this book as I am always interested in the subject of how we can use knitting to make the world a better place. The book defines activism as either making a statement, recrafting the past, crafting for a cause, crafting to recycle, renew, and reuse, and crafting a community. Ravelry is highlighted along with knit bombing, quilts with a message, and Ruth Marshall's work to highlight endangered species through knitting.

My favorite project included in the book is the Red Scarf Project. DH works as a Clinical Director at a treatment foster care program and the kids he works with who graduate from high school and go on to college are few and far between. The Red Scarf Project gives out 2,500 scarves a year to former foster care kids who are in college.

And yes, there is a pattern for those cute stranded mittens on the cover included in the book.

Knit One Crochet Too's Wick Yarn

2011-10-10T15:36:00.000-06:00

Here's my first Christmas finished project - a pair of basic boring hiking socks for DH. I used size 4 (US) dpns and 48 sts but I wish I'd used thinner needles. The yarn is Wick by Knit One Crochet Too and it is a soy/polypropylene blend. It looks like they market this yarn specifically for hiking socks because the polypropylene wicks away moisture. The color I used is called Cream but it does have a butter yellow tinge which I hope picky DH won't mind. I used about 2 1/2 skeins for these socks that have his required 8" of K2P2 ribbing.

The most amazing thing about this yarn is that is is springy like wool. (As opposed to super springy like Cascade Fixation or Elann Esprit cotton/elastic blends.) I have no idea why this yarn is springy but I read the Ravelry projects for this yarn and apparently it is the soy??

Here's a close-up of the yarn. It looks a bit like unspun roving with very thin threads in it. It was a joy to knit with and I can't wait to buy more colors to do a stranded project. It is listed as a worsted weight but I think I'll consider it a sport weight when deciding on future projects. I don't know yet how it washes up. I bought mine at Yarnmarket. (Note: K1C2 also makes a thinner yarn called Pediwick but it is a bamboo/nylon blend.)

Christmas Planning

2011-09-30T16:19:00.002-06:00

I finished my first holiday knitting project - a pair of Crystalline socks for a girlfriend. I used size 1 dpns and Miss Babs Yummy Hand-Painted Superwash Yarn in Crazy E. The yarn was one of my Scavenger Hunt prizes and is a really lovely colorway. Even Bubbles seems to like it!

I am hoping to make a few gifts for DH in the yarns seen below. The colors don't really excite me but the fibers I'm using should be interesting. I'm going to do a basic pair of hiking socks in the cream colored Wick. It is 53% soy and 47% polypropylene which is supposed to wick away moisture. It kind of reminds me of chenille and I'm curious to see if DH likes it for his hiking adventures. It is listed as a worsted weight but it strikes me more as a sport weight. ( Knit One Crochet Too also makes a yarn called Pediwick that is fingering weight but it is bamboo and nylon.)

I also bought some Berroco Comfort to try. It is a nylon/acrylic blend and it comes in a lot of colors and weights. I'm pretty sick of DH destroying his hand-knit hiking socks by putting them in the dryer so I thought I'd try some yarns that are less likely to be hurt by machine washing. I'm using the gray worsted weight to knit the Thuja men's socks from Knitty and the dark purple to knit him a pair of Bamboo Field Mitts. Last but not least I'm using a super-soft yarn to knit him a pair of dress gloves. The yarn at the bottom left is Sunshine Yarns Luxury Sock Superwash yarn with 10% cashmere in the Coal Creek colorway (another Scavenger Hunt prize!).

That should keep me busy but if I have time I'll maybe knit him a skull cap from Cascade 220 as well.

I won yarn again!

2011-09-23T14:19:00.000-06:00

I also won some yarn for July's Sockdown Challenge at Sock Knitter's Anonymous (in addition to the yarn prizes for July's SKA Scavenger Hunt). I initially turned it down but the list moderator Debi insisted since my name came up twice for the July challenge and it is apparently very difficult to win the SKA prizes. So instead I'm going to donate a sock ebook (the wonderful Silk Road Socks) for the winner's of next month's challenge. And if you knit socks, definitely check out participating in the Ravelry group Sock Knitter's Anonymous monthly challenges so you can win prizes too.

I got to choose the yarn colors for my prize. The yarn is called Transitions by Stone Barn Fibers and the shade is Summer Solstice. It is dyed so that the finished socks will have yellow cuffs and orange feet. I can't wait to knit with it!

I also have been doing more stash enhancement. I bought most of the Panda Soy and Maizy solid colors I could find now that they're discontinued and some more Esprit for socks for myself. On the left you can see the gorgeous color of yarn I'm currently knitting with (Miss Babs Yummy Hand-Painted Superwash in Crazy E). I'm knitting the Crystalline Socks for a girlfriend with small feet and hope to finish this weekend.

Well back to work. I'm participating in a blogging challenge for the month of October on my cooking blog where you're supposed to post either every day or every weekday. I'm trying to get some of the work done in advance so I don't go completely crazy.

My Least Attractive FO

2011-09-19T16:02:00.001-06:00

This may be my ugliest FO but I'm hoping it is one of the most used. This is only the second time I've ever knit for a pet but I had a lot of alpaca scraps to use up. Bubbles loves her beds so I thought she could use a handmade version. As far as I can tell Bubbles started out as a breeder in a feed store then she was the victim of an animal attack. She is missing one toe (you can kind of see in the photo below) and has another paw that is a bit wonky looking. She languished for over a year waiting to be adopted included I think at least 3 months in Petco in a large fish tank. No one wanted her because she is white and not as cute as the lops and lionhead bunnies.

She's been with us three years and DH and I fall in love with her more each day. In fact this is the only time we've had just one pet but Bubbles prefers not to share her house with other pets. (My sweet senior citizen cat Jack used to stalk her and hide behind doors and scare her so when he went to cat heaven Bubbles was thrilled.) I used the free Snug Harbor Pet Bed pattern and three strands of some scrap DK alpaca with a size 10 1/2 (US) circ. I think I accidentally omitted a few of the purl rows. I used about 3/4 of a bag of tightly rolled up polyester Fiberfill for the edges. My bed is about 20" in diameter.

Bubbles thinks this new bed works really well as a food dish!

The Dog Days of Knitting

2011-08-31T23:24:00.001-06:00

Every August I hit a bit of a knitting slump. I guess I thought I'd avoid it this year with my colorwork sock challenge but the dog days of knitting slowed me down. In one month I only managed one pair of stranded socks and one pair of socks using Elann's Esprit cotton/elastic yarn.

Here are the Esprit socks. I really like the feel of Esprit yarn on my feet and I've been experimenting with needle size and yardage. This time I cast on 56 sts on size 4 (US) dpns and used almost one skein of Ruby and one skein of Deep Black. I don't think I will go smaller than size 4 needles and I'm happy I can make a pair of socks with only two skeins.

Here are my final stranded socks for the challenge. These are the Flora socks from Barb Brown's book on knee socks and I used Knit Picks' Stroll undyed and Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Fireberry (one of my Scavenger Hunt prizes). The cute sock project bag was another prize from ItsBrynn on Ravelry.

So I only knit five pairs in two months when I was hoping for seven or eight. Here they are all together.

July/August Color Knitting Links

2011-08-22T17:49:00.001-06:00

Lately I've really been impressed with all the great new free colorwork knitting patterns available so I'm focusing on them this month.

FREE PATTERNS

Another wonderful free pattern from Leslie Comstock (of Pisqu fame) are these adorable Cowasocky Socks using intarsia in the round featuring individually knit toes.

Donna Druchunas offers the Bosnian Slipper Socks in the current Knitty. Some of the pattern uses 3-color rows.

Here is a PDF for some great stranded mittens with my favorite dancing people on the cuff. The pattern is in Swedish but the pattern can be worked with just the charts.

Penguin lovers will enjoy this cute hat, Penguins Galore.

The Medal of Honor Wallpaper Socks are inspired by a video game. They have a Nordic feel to me.

If you are a fan of the Dale of Norway ski sweaters, check out this Drops men's sweater pattern.

The Assassin's Creed socks, knit in Palette, are also inspired by a video game. I like the pattern on the sole of the foot.

The Twelve Months of Christmas is a traditional Fair Isle vest pattern.

The Swirlette Cowl is a good use of a yarn with longer color changes like Noro.

I'm planning on making the Butterflies are Free Sock pattern by Rose Hiver very soon. They feature a picot hem and are knit cuff-down.

Here's a cute raglan sweater for kids, Dance of the Robots.

The Dogwoods Socks feature corrugated ribbing and a color pattern that reminds me of those fluffy pods that drift off of cottonwood trees.

The Into the Labyrinth Fingerless Mitts are based on a movie and are a good choice for more experienced color knitters.

Here is a PDF pattern for a Fair Isle Hat using Cascade 220 sport that looks like an ideal choice for a new color knitter.

Susanne Chotty's Flower Power Socks are a good choice for a variegated/solid yarn mix.

These cool Zigzag Gloves feature both stranded knitting and twined knitting for those up for a challenge.

KITS

Virtual Yarns has four new upcoming kits we can look forward to - two sweaters and two scarves.

The newest kit from Renaissance Dyeing are these colorful Land Girl Socks.

YOUTUBE

I haven't had a chance to watch all of this but the Handknitting a Glove video sounds extremely helpful to new glove knitters.

Here is a video on Knitting the Index Finger on a glove.

OTHER

Here's a great online tool to make your own color charts.

The Shades of Shetland blog offers a few suggestions for patterns for first-time color knitters.

Do you have ugly SSKs? HERE is a great message thread from Sock Knitter's Anonymous with tips on improving them. I'm currently trying the technique of putting the left hand needle into the two slipped stitches from the right side on a pair of socks.

Here is a good link to all sorts of exercises to help with repetitive stress injuries.

Pantone has announced the Fall 2011 Color Trends - I like most of them this time.

I'm not the only one in this house looking forward to fall!

Taming the Beast

2011-08-15T16:14:00.000-06:00

Quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever done was tracking my yarn and other knitting expenses over the last year. Yikes! The grand total was about 3 times what I would have predicted. I won't tell you the total to spare you from fainting but it does seem like I could probably take up downhill skiing in exotic locations for the same amount I spend on my hobby. If you've been reading my blog for a while you know I just won a huge bounty of beautiful sock yarn and also that I already have a sizable stash (photos HERE).

I decided to start limiting my yarn purchases. At least I am not so completely delusional that I think I can go without buying yarn at all. I plan to test out all the plant-based sock yarns out there so I figure I'd just limit myself to buying those brands when they are on sale. There really aren't that many yarns like that available and really how often do they go on sale?

You probably guessed how this story would end. Jimmy Beans Wool is having a 55% off sale on Panda Cotton, Panda Soy, and Maizy. Actually so is Hidden Purls so now I'm wondering if they are discontinuing the yarn lines? I guess the moral of this story is that I should stop keeping track of how much I'm spending on yarn.

Even Bubbles seems alarmed by all the yarn!

Purple Heart Socks

2011-08-05T13:32:00.000-06:00

I'm knitting faster than I can blog! These are my fourth finished stranded pair since the beginning of July and I have three additional pairs I want to knit by the end of August. One of the three is on size 4 (US) needles which should speed things up.

I'm too busy knitting to take great photographs but one of the two colors in these socks is pretty difficult to get right. It is Knit Picks' Stroll in Majestic which is a rich deep purple but usually photographs blue. (If you know the Colorado Rockies baseball team colors it is that wonderful shade of purple.) The other yarn was one of my Scavenger Hunt prizes - Kollage Sock-a-licious in color 7809. It is such a wonderful springy yarn and I love it! I received the needles I used as prizes (Kollage square dpns in 2.75 mm) and the lovely pattern itself, Coeur D'Or, was a prize.

It should be a great weekend of baseball and some serious sock knitting. I hope to have another pair for you next week if you're not too sick of stranded socks.

Antioch Socks

2011-08-02T02:25:00.000-06:00

Here are the Antioch Socks by one of my favorite sock designers, Robyn Gallimore. I used some old Elann Sock it to Me in black and Knit Picks' Felici in the Caprica colorway and size 2.5 mm dpns. I purposely did not match them up.

I know I'll wear these often as I like the colors, the length of the cuff, and the fit. These are my third pair for the July/August colorwork sock challenge. I have chosen yarn and patterns for four more pairs but I am currently lagging a bit. Bubbles thinks I should call off the whole thing and spend the rest of the month admiring her large white self.

Moose Socks & Striped Devotion Socks

2011-07-26T15:13:00.002-06:00

This has been a really busy month so I'm behind in showing you my FOs. First are the Moose Socks from a free Drops pattern HERE. I used one skein of Garnstudio Fabel in black (purchased from Nordic Mart) and a leftover half skein of Knit Picks' Chroma Regency in fingering weight. I originally purchased some Drops Delight yarn to use but it was making me a little itchy and blotchy so I used the Chroma instead. I used the stated size of needles, size 2.75 mm, but I wish I'd used a smaller size. I've also decided to not use Chroma anymore for stranded color knitting as I prefer less fuzzy yarns for colorwork.

A lot of the Drops sock patterns seem to have you CO then knit a row plain before you start the ribbing. If you use the long-tail CO this sort of flips the cast on toward the outside of the sock and it looks a bit like a braided cast on. I used the contrast yarn for the CO to play this up.

The next socks are the Striped Devotion Socks from the book Weekend Knitting. (The Rav link goes to the Cozy Armchair Socks because both pairs are part of the same pattern.) They're not part of my summer colorwork challenge but just a quickie project for playing around with Elann's Esprit. I used African Violet, Jade and French Navy. I know the project was for a thicker yarn (The pattern used size 7 needles.) but I am too stubborn for my own good and ended up with some ladders. I have promised myself to use this yarn with much smaller needles next time.

Bubbles thinks I'd be much happier if I just switched to her favorite hobby of ripping up phone books.

Christmas in July!

2011-07-20T12:45:00.001-06:00

I was one of the lucky winners of the Sock Knitter's Anonymous Scavenger Hunt in conjunction with Worldwide Knit in Public Day. You wouldn't believe all the wonderful prizes I've been receiving from generous knitters all over (and the prizes are still pouring in!). I'm still in shock really at such an incredible thing happening.

First of all, here is the sock yarn goodness:

Top Left: Miss Babs Yummy in A Day at Powells, Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Sassafras, Handwerks Sock Plus 8 in Paprika, Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Fireberry, and Kollage Sock-A-Licious in color 7809

Bottom Left: String Theory Caper in Periwinkle (my favorite color in a cashmere blend!), Sunshine Yarns' Luxury Sock Yarn in Coal Creek, Barking Dog Yarns Achilles in Navajo Sky, Miss Babs Yummy in Crazy E, and Candy Skein Yummy in Lemon-Lime

I'm just about to start a stranded project using the wonderful Hazels Knits yarn in Sassafrass. I'm also planning a project using the Kollage pink yarn which has some silk content and is incredibly soft. Both of the Miss Babs yarns are so beautiful and I am having fun trying to think of a good project for that white, red, and black yarn.

Don't you just love that turquoise Navajo sky color from Barking Dog Yarns? Suzan also offers two mini-skeins in her Opposites Attract section - I think it would be so much fun to figure out how to use the two yarns together.

Tami at Candy Skein was sweet enough to dye that lime green yarn just for me as I've been dreaming of a bright lime green sock yarn for a long time. All of her hand-dyed yarns are named after candy flavors and her bright colors are right up my alley.

DH has already requested a pair of gloves from the Luxury Sock Yarn which is also a cashmere blend. It is such a wonderfully soft yarn so I'm hoping I might be able to get two pairs of gloves out of the one skein.

In the non-yarn department, I received a copy of Hunter Hammersen's beautiful book, Silk Road Socks: 14 Sock Patterns Based on Oriental Rugs. The Salor socks shown in the photo use the exact same Handwerks yarn I received so I plan to knit those soon. I dearly love my beautiful Grey Bear II project bag from Peg's Procrastination - it has a lining and interior pockets to hold all sorts of notions.

There are other prizes I haven't even managed to photograph including two pairs of Kollage square needles (one set of dpns and one long circ for Magic Loop). I also received five individual sock patterns: Plain Vanilla Socks with Sprinkles, Coeur d'Or Socks, Bas Symetriques no. 3, Curling Tendril Socks, and the Hearts Afire Sock pattern. I chose the pretty Blue Ceramic Swirl Sterling Bead earrings from Maggie's Handcrafts Studio as I just love glass bead jewelry. I'm also going to be receiving another handmade project bag and some crocheted stitch markers so I'll show those when they arrive.

Once I'm done with my colorwork sock knitting challenge I'm going to put a serious effort into knitting up all the yarns and patterns to help promote all these wonderful items. Thank you so much to everyone on the Sock Knitter's Anonymous forum who donated gifts! And if you want to join the Scavenger Hunt for next year and compete for these wonderful prizes, you need to join SKA and compete in some of their regular monthly challenges first. The current colorwork challenge runs through the end of August but you need to post your cast on in the appropriate message thread before the end of July. All the details of the challenges are HERE.

Perhaps the World's Most Enjoyable Sock Pattern

2011-07-18T16:15:00.003-06:00

I finished these socks last night while watching a 16 inning baseball game and honestly I was a bit sad to be done. The pattern is Snow Under Cedars by Leslie Comstock from the book Think Outside the Sox and it was full of technique goodness. The pattern features a braided cast on, corrugated ribbing, two-color braids, lots of fun colorwork charts, stranded colorwork knit flat on the heel, Cat Bordhi's riverbed architecture (i.e., gusset decreases are done on the sole of the foot), and to finish, the socks are turned inside out and the toe is closed using the three needle bind-off.

I knit the socks on size 0 dpns and omitted the beads in the top motif.

I started with Knit Picks' Stroll Majestic and Stroll Tonal Pearlescent for the ribbing but switched out the Majestic for Stroll Tonal Deep Waters for the rest of the sock.

Lots of Orange Socks

2011-06-24T12:38:00.001-06:00

Thank you so much for your help with charting in Excel and also finding solid sock colors! Please check yesterday's comments for some great links to solid color sock yarns. Also TheKnitter.com has some solid colors of Regia and she also sells Sisu - all with free shipping.

I'm looking forward to trying all the brands recommended in the comments, especially Simply Socks' solid color line - I just love those colors. It looks like I can now find solid sock yarn in any colors I want. Also, I have decided not to try to use Baby Ull for socks as it does sound like the yarn won't wear well - thanks for that advice as well.

I finished some orange socks - first a pair of socks to wear while one of my favorite teams the San Francisco Giants are playing. I bought some Knit Picks' Stroll Hand-Painted yarn in theTiger colorway because it kind of reminded me of the team colors. Then I tried to use it for a stranded star pattern which wasn't really a success so I just did boring checks. Perhaps they will prove good luck to the team though if I wear them when they are playing. (BTW, if you look up "Baseball Socks" on Ravelry, Meredith Wills has a wonderful free pattern with charted out logos for all the MLB teams. There are several different versions of the pattern depending on the teams.)

And also in the orange theme I made some thick socks. I have wanted to use up this orange Kroy for years so I doubled the yarn for these socks and used size 4 (US) dpns. I used almost three skeins so I consider these socks more of a success.

Oops - I put the original chart in backwards - here it is for working a top down 72 st chart. Thank you Marcia for noticing this!

Sock Yarn and a Question

2011-06-18T16:56:00.000-06:00

I received some questions in the comments about sock yarns. I have never knit with Dale Baby Ull at all - I bought it for some colorwork gloves I never made. I'm still not sure I will use it for socks as I also wonder how well it will wear.

I have had good luck with Regia and Opal but I haven't seen any solid colors of these yarns for a while. Does anyone know any sources?

Most of my stash is really old sock yarns. I gave up knitting stranded socks for years because I couldn't find many good stranded patterns or a great selection of solid colored sock yarns. Fortunately there are some great stranded sock patterns out there now. I have used Knit Picks Stroll which I do not think is tightly enough spun to be really hard wearing so I am babying those socks.

I ended up buying more sock yarns from Nordic Mart to use for my sock challenge next month. Drops Fabel is also another new to me sock yarn; it is less soft but more tightly twisted than Stroll for about the same price. I'm thinking it will last longer than socks with Stroll. The Drops Delight is for the Moose Socks and maybe these Drops socks. Drops Delight is unplied like Knit Picks' Chroma but maybe combining it with a traditional sock yarn will help with durability.

I still want more solid color sock yarns for colorwork. I need to get some Cascade Heritage to try for colorwork. Also I'd like to knit some stranded socks with Sandnes Sisu.

Here is one last question I recently received. I use Stitch Motif Maker 3 for charts and there is a menu option to export the files to .JPG files.

I have designed several stranded projects -- but on regular graph paper. Then transferred manually to an Excel graph with an .xls suffix. I am looking for a way to create a stranded graph in a format that can be saved and edited and inserted in a blog or on Ravelry. Any suggestions or directions on how I can accomplish this?

Does anyone know how to insert a .xls graph into a blog?

Project Planning

2011-06-11T19:22:00.002-06:00

I've been looking through the stash trying to find colors for stranded socks. July is Colorwork Month in Sock Knitter's Anonymous on Ravelry and I hope to challenge myself to see how many pairs I can knit in two months. I will be very happy if I manage six pairs of fingering weight stranded throughout socks with patterns that aren't that easy to memorize.

On the left is Knit Picks' Stroll Tonal in Pearlescent and Deep Waters which I may use for Snow Under Cedars by Leslie Comstock. On the upper right is Dale Baby Ull which I would like to use for Bas Symetriques no. 3. On the bottom right is Knit Picks' Felici in Caprica and some black Sock it to Me from Elann which I'm going to use for Antioch by Robyn Gallimore, one of my favorite sock designers.

The top left is some Knit Picks' Bare and some Chroma in Prism for Stephanie van der Linden's Classic Kilim socks. The bottom is some bright yellow Kroy and Knit Pick's Sapphire Heather for Pisqu (although I may sub a dark purple for the Sapphire Heather). The top right is the color combination that has me the most excited - it is some green Sock it To Me (the color is wrong in the photo) along with some Chroma in Lollipop. I plan on using those yarns to make Harika.

We'll see though - there are a bunch of other options in my queue such as Kathrine, Granada, or Both Sides Now. If I end up buying yarn I'll probably add some more black and white yarns along with the yarns to make these Moose Socks from Drops.

Tea Tree Fingerless Mitts

2011-06-04T23:11:00.001-06:00

I wish I'd done better with these photos but my camera and I are not getting along lately. You can find the free pattern for these fingerless mitts HERE - they use four colors of the lovely Sunday Knits 3-ply sport weight yarns (Brigadoon Caper, Brigadoon Birch, Angelic Aqua and Eden Grape). The Brigadoon is a beautiful tweed with flecks of different colors which I hope you can see in the photo above.

I used size 2.25 mm dpns for the ribbing and size 3.0 mm dpns for the hand. The mitts fit a women's size large and the pattern has a sore thumb gusset and corrugated ribbing. Because I'm a two-handed color knitter, to do corrugated ribbing I hold the yarn to be knit in my left hand and knit continental and the yarn to be purled is in my right hand and I purl those stitches American/English style.

I think Bubbles approves! I can't blame the fact that she is blurry on my camera though. She becomes quite twitchy whenever I point the camera at her.

June Color Knitting Links

2011-06-02T12:22:00.000-06:00

There are some good links today! I am just waiting for a photo session but I will have a free pattern for stranded fingerless mitts available for you next.

FREE PATTERNS

This incredible complex sock pattern from Sock Madness 5 designed by Leslie Comstock is going to be released free very soon. I am haunting the project page because I absolutely have to knit the Pisqu socks as soon as possible! I love that the gusset decreases are under the heel.

Rigmor offers these classic Selbu Mittens - I like that they are knit in DK weight yarn and plan to make them soon.

The Vector Mittens by Jennifer Thompson come in multiple sizes and offer variations for top shaping along with a fingerless mitt option. They are knit in Palette.

Kamilla offers a great free tutorial on how to knit a stranded top for your high-top sneakers.

Ruskin on Ravelry has been busy designing tam patterns: Sunset Over Loch Broom, the Greenvoe Fair Isle Tam, and Colour Your Own Fair Isle Tam where you can insert your favorite charts.

Cascade Yarns is offering this free pattern for a hooded coat. I wish I could see a better photo because I would definitely consider knitting it. I hope someone knits it soon so I can make a decision.

If you have a bunch of sock yarn odds and ends, knit yourself some handy Luggage Finders.

Roald Wench's Dala Selu Hybrid Mittens feature a horse and a ribbed cuff.

PATTERNS FOR SALE

Susan Crawford's booklet, Vintage Gifts to Knit, offers some lovely and feminine stranded projects.

I'm pretty sure I've never linked to a pattern for stranded adult pants before! The Wool Poker Dot Pants come in one size and use size 5 (US) needles.

Amanda Carrigan's Snowflake Gloves are knit in fingering weight yarn and feature corrugated ribbing and lots of snowflakes.

EYE CANDY

Check out this afghan from Woolly Thoughts! I love this idea - you simply pick 10 colors and then do squares of two of the ten colors mixed together. So ten colors look like fifty five colors! I may have to use this idea for something.

Here are some gorgeous Russian socks that apparently also protect you from bad luck. If you are familiar with Turkish sock construction you can grab the free charts from a Russian blog (link at the Rav page).

I love TonyD's Spinner's Hill Waistcoat. Apparently he also spindle spun all the yarn as well.

Check out Soxnsox's mind-boggling rainbow version of the Thistle Shawl for our Stranded Forum KAL. It very much deserved to win First in its Class at Maryland Sheep and Wool. I love that she knit "Soxnsox 2011" in the border!

Westgate knit some beautiful Turkish socks in brilliant blues. I just love, love, love the colors.

Aztoni knit this lizard sweater inspired by M.C. Escher. You can PM her if you'd like the charts.

BOOKS

Sasha Kagan's Classic Collection, due in September, promises to have intarsia and stranded sweater designs along with essays about hand knit fashion through the years. I wish I could see more of the designs! Her web site also sells kits for nature-inspired intarsia sweaters.

I'm going to pre-order Sock Knitting Master Class which looks to have some great stranded patterns from many accomplished designers and will be released next month. Also, Knitting Socks Around the World, available in August, looks promising.

MISCELLANEOUS

Want free yarn? YarnOnTheHouse offers regular free giveaways of yarn and patterns.

Has anyone tried the Knit Picks' Teleidoscope? Apparently it helps you make color choices by peering at your yarns through it. I should really just buy one and try it as it is only $2.99.

In this post, Mary Ann of Two Strands offers to kit up any of her old Dale of Norway sweater patterns for you. Dale is offering the old patterns for free so no more being sad about long lost patterns.

On Blarter you can offer your handmade items as barter for other handmade stuff. Check it out!

YOUTUBE

Learn to massage your own hands with this video from Veria TV.

From MamachaUK, here is an interesting video where you can see a traditional chullo being knit. I love how all the extra unused colors are made into little butterflies for more mobile knitting.

Here's a fun video showing double knitting four colors per row - not exactly the speediest technique with all that back and forth of the four yarns. I was wondering how often all the yarns would needed to be untangled in this method.

TWO PAIRS OF MAN SOCKS

2011-05-27T13:39:00.002-06:00

I'm really hustling to finish up some projects before the end of May. (I have a few KALs I want to join in June.) I still have a fingerless mitt project to finish. Both pairs of socks are for DH.

Here are the Eesti Trail Hiking Socks by Nancy Bush and it is the third time I've knit them. I was working from the original pattern from Interweave Knits in 1997; the version in the book Favorite Socks has some errors in the colorwork chart. I used Elann's Peruvian Highland Sport and I'm not sure what size dpns I used - either 4 or 5 (US) I think.

I am too impatient to wait for DH to model these so here I am modeling them even though they don't fit my feet.

Here's a plain vanilla pair of socks using Elann's Esprit cotton/elastic yarn in the Tarragon color. I used size 6 dpns and 48 stitches with his required 8 inches (sigh) of K2P2 ribbing. I should have used a smaller needle but I wanted to finish these up quickly. These are possibly the most comfortable socks I've ever knit. If they pass the laundry test I'm going to buy all the colors of Esprit for future socks for both of us. I knit these for his summer hikes where wool socks might be too warm. Actually I'm really hoping he doesn't like them so I can keep them for myself!

Amazing Stash Stories

2011-05-22T16:40:00.000-06:00

A long time ago I knit a Dale of Norway sweater for DH on the spur of the moment. The amazing part was that I had enough yarn in the right colors in my stash to knit it. My stash is smaller now so I doubt there are any spur of the moment sweaters left.

This weekend I had another amazing stash moment. I was knitting the Easy Aran Socks in Valley Yarns Northampton from Webs. I realized I wouldn't have enough yarn from just one skein so I didn't knit the toe of the first sock. Once I finished the second sock up to the toe I went off in search of some other yarn to use for the toes. The amazing part? I found a yarn that is very close in color in my stash. It is Elann's Peruvian Highland Sport and is lighter weight than the Northampton, a worsted weight yarn. Still it really is almost the exact same color. I made a few modifications to make these fit my narrow feet and I made the ribbing on the cuff longer.

Speaking of stash, here is some plant-based yarn I bought at the Woodland Woolworks going out of business sale. (Currently the price reduction is 45%.) I bought Maizy, Panda Cotton and Soy, and some Rowan Calmer. I've been buying more yarn than usual because I figure I won't be buying as much once we move.

Knitting Ebooks from the Library

2011-05-18T14:48:00.000-06:00

Kindle 2 (left) with a purchased ebook and nook Classic on the right w/ a library ebook

Lately I've been enjoying reading library ebooks about knitting and I thought I'd post how to do it. (NOTE: I uploaded larger photos to Blogger so click on any photo to see it larger.) Best of all you don't even have to have an ereader to do this; you can read ebooks on your computer or phone.

I am not planning on purchasing any more ebooks on knitting (and cooking) because they still have too many typos and formatting errors. On Amazon you can return any ebook within 7 days I think if there is a problem. After I returned about 5 Kindle cookbooks in a row I realized I should just stick to buying print versions until they can improve quality. For knitting ebooks legible charts can be a problem; the best solution I've seen for this was in the ebook Knitting Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec. Every time there is a chart in the ebook there is also a URL where you can print out each chart. Brilliant!

Same page from the Knitting Answer book shown on my nook and on my laptop in Adobe Digital Editions

First check your local library. If your library does not have ebooks, check others in your state or region you might be able to join. This Wiki on Ebook Lending Libraries has a complete listing of all the libraries with ebooks and lets you know how many ebooks each facility has to offer. If you still can't find a library near you, check out the libraries that offer access to their ebook collection for a fee. Besides my wonderful local library, I'm a member of the Free Library of Philadelphia - currently the fee is $35 for out-of-state members (the card is free for everyone over 65). DH really likes the FLP because they also offer Freegal which is a free music download library. The Fairfax County Library in Virginia also offers a card for out-of-state members for $27 a year.

Once you have access to a library with ebooks, you'll need Adobe Digital Editions. Your library will provide you with a link to downloading it. This software is annoying but it is a necessary evil. Open ADE and go to your library's digital media section (Overdrive is the system that most libraries use for ebooks) and go download a book from your library. Don't despair if the book you want is not available; ebooks are very popular at libraries so you can either add the book to your wishlist or put it on hold. I haven't had to wait longer than 3 weeks for a hold so far.

You can see color photos on most ebooks when viewing in ADE on your computer

You can transfer a library ebook to your ereader through ADE or just read the ebook on your computer. There are also apps for reading library ebooks on phones. In Overdrive when the book is due it is no longer available for you to read so you don't have to worry about returning the ebook in time.

Cauchy Socks

2011-05-13T14:43:00.000-06:00

Thanks everyone for your ideas for plant-based yarns! Linen is an especially interesting idea because I have never knit with linen. I have been ordering some more brands to test out and I'll show them when they arrive.

Here are my Cauchy socks. The pattern is from Cookie A.'s first book, Sock Innovation. I used Knit Picks' Stroll in Sapphire Heather and size 2.5 mm dpns.

These socks were knit for the May knitalong in the Solid Socks group on Ravelry. The color challenge for this month was "Earth" and I decided for Earth I'd do the color of the Sandia Mountains as seen from my house. This first photo was taken from my driveway.

This photo was taken from my backyard.

Plant-Based Yarns

2011-05-10T13:25:00.002-06:00

Every time the weather warms up here I go off in search of some plant-based yarns to try. Last year I ended up with a lot of hemp I hated and some Pakucho organic cotton I had no idea what to do with. I was originally thinking colorwork but this yarn has zero elasticity. I think I'll use all the shades for a spontaneous scarf. (To make a spontaneous scarf you just find the longest circular needle you can find, cast on as many stitches as you can stand (I'm 5'7 so I like scarves to be around 6 feet long), and do seed stitch with a new color each row. Leave about 4-6 inches of yarn at the beginning and end of the row to make fringe.)

So far my favorite plant-based yarn is Crystal Palace's Panda Cotton. It is a bamboo/cotton/nylon blend. I used it for these fingerless mitts and ripped one mitt out FIVE TIMES to come up with a design I liked and you can't even tell the yarn was mistreated. So it gets a good grade for durability and the price is decent. There are not enough solid colors though. As it turns out Panda Cotton is now 35% off at the Woodland Woolworks going out of business sale so I just bought more along with some Panda Soy to try and some more Maizy. I bought some Maizy last year but I have yet to try it.

Finally, I bought some Elann's Esprit (similar to Cascade Fixation). This yarn comes in lovely colors and is a great price. I started some hiking socks for DH - he's exceptionally picky about knitted items so I am waiting to see what he thinks after he tests them out.

Does anyone have any other recommendations for plant-based yarns I should try? I'd especially love to find something that would work for stranding.

Tijeras Mitten & Red River Glove Patterns Now Free

2011-05-05T16:43:00.002-06:00

In anticipation of finishing up this last pattern design (which will also be free), I've been going through all my patterns and deleting some of the older and unpopular ones. Both my Tijeras Mittens and Red River Gloves patterns were very unpopular but I didn't want to delete them so I thought I'd make them free.

The Tijeras Mittens use four colors of O Wool Classic 2 ply which is a thick fingering weight and very elastic. The mittens feature a peasant thumb and are pretty fun to knit. Alas, this pattern is by far my least popular - since publication in 2009 I've sold less than 5 copies.

The Red River Gloves use Knit Picks' Palette yarn and feature a sore thumb and a colorwork gauntlet cuff with a picot hem. You could just do some ribbing though if you don't like stranded color knitting - the pattern comes in two sizes.

I hope to finally have an FO for you very soon!

May Color Knitting Links

2011-05-03T15:12:00.002-06:00

Things are slowing down in the knitting world as they do this time every year so I'll just do one color knitting link post a month until fall.

FREE PATTERNS

Hanne Magnussen designed this pretty raglan sweater, Long Faroese Sweater, using naturally colored yarns.

Patti Henry's Dots and Stripes Purse uses many colors of DK weight yarn.

HERE is a free pattern for a mosaic hat from Cascade using Aran weight yarn.

Knitting Iceland offers this free pattern for Beta's Mittens. The mittens themselves are knit in one color but the design comes from a second color that is cross-stitched on the front.

The Houndstooth Beanie and Mitts use a combo of Cascade Heritage solids and paints.

PATTERNS FOR SALE

I'm in Janel Laidman's Illuminations Colorwork Sock Club and I just wanted to shout out her newest Granada pattern. I'm glad I just signed up for the patterns only version of the club because my eyes have trouble distinguishing the pattern with the two multi-colored yarns used. Anyway, I look forward to making these striking socks inspired by Moorish architecture in two solid colored yarns. There are lots of really long floats but they'll be worth it.

Lisa Ellis' Russian Winter Hat and Purse use two colors of fingering weight yarn. I really love the two color ribbing design on the hat.

Isabelle Allard has two new pretty stranded sock patterns Bas Symetriques #1 and Bas Symetriques #2. I really like them both although I'm currently leaning toward #1.

VIDEOS

Kerin of Knit Picks has released a very helpful video on intarsia knitting - check it out if you find intarsia difficult.

Clothed in the Lamb offers this interesting video on reversible intarsia which I have to try. I didn't watch the whole thing but it looks like it is done with K1, P1 ribbing. Their beautiful Second Spring scarf pattern uses the technique.

BOOKS

Looks like Nancy Bush is releasing an updated edition of Folk Socks next January. It doesn't look like there are any new patterns (darn!) but the yarn selection is updated and it looks like there is some additional technique info.

Speaking of Nancy Bush, the book I'm most anxiously awaiting is Knitting Socks Around the World which comes out in July and has patterns from Nancy and many other great sock designers.

Check out Scandinavian Folklore which is full of gorgeous color photos of traditional costumes. From looking at this page it appears to be partially in English. Thanks to Chery for the heads up on this book!

NeedleArtsBookShop is selling a Japanese knitting book on colorwork - Fair Isle Knitting which has some gorgeous sweaters.

KITS

Rare Rowan Yarns claims to have the largest selection of discontinued Rowan yarns and kits. They're pricey but it is nice to know you can still buy a Kaffe Fassett yarn kit for many of his designs.

MISCELLANEOUS

Looks like yarn and kit prices at Virtual Yarns have increased. I guess I shouldn't have waited so long to buy this hat kit. I think I'll ask DH to get it for my birthday in July.

HERE is an interesting post on using conductive thread to make knit items than can be used with touchpad screens. Since I have perpetually cold hands, I'm going to have to check this stuff out so I can read my nook while wearing gloves.

HERE is a quick how-to post on making your own glove blockers.

Bubbles hopes everyone has time to stop and smell the flowers today.

Trying New Things & Photos of Bubbles

2011-04-21T16:42:00.006-06:00

One of the best things about knitting is that you could be doing it for a lifetime and still learn new tricks. We were studying these ancient Persian silk colorwork socks on the Stranded forum and I was wondering if back then they had some special tricks for adding additional colors (as seen on the foot) or doing intarsia in the round that knitters of today haven't discovered yet.

Here are a few new things I've tried recently.

1. PICKING UP HEEL STITCHES - Deb from the Sock Knitter's Anonymous Ravelry group posted this video of how to pick up gusset stitches on a sock. I already do the trick to avoid the hole at the gusset (occasionally - sometimes in a stranded sock it can make things look worse) but the way he picked up the heel stitches in the video was completely new to me. He did it from the reverse side of the heel and after trying it, I decided it does look neater than my previous method.

2. SOCK BLOCKING - I mentioned it before but blocking socks inside out on a sock blocker really does get rid of that crease you get when blocking them right side out. I think stranded socks might also dry a little faster because all the floats are front and center.

3. KNIT FRONT AND BACK INCREASE - From Neen on Ravelry I learned that you can do the knit in the front and back of a stitch increase without getting that noticeable and ugly purl bump. Start by knitting the stitch in the front then after you insert the right needle into the back of the stitch, DON'T WRAP the yarn around the needle, instead just pull the left needle out. Essentially you're not really knitting the back of the stitch but you're grabbing the back of the stitch instead. Her version of this increase looks so much better! Grab whatever you are currently knitting to try it and see.

Kollage Size 3.0 mm square dpns

4. SQUARE DPNS - I finally bought a set of Kollage square dpns. After spending half my life retrieving dpns that have rolled off a table, I was eager to buy a pair to test out. The most amazing thing about these needles is that stitches do not fall off the needles. I am using very slippery yarn for my current project and the stitches stay put. These are quite possibly the best needles for glove fingers ever invented! I wonder if they're hollow inside because they are lighter weight than I expected which is also a plus. On the down side, I don't find them as comfortable on my hands as my usual dpns (Inox/Prym dpns), I tend to knit even tighter with them if such a thing is possible, and I paid $12.50 a set at Webs which is pretty pricey. Still I will be buying a few more sizes though for occasional use with slippery yarns such as alpaca and for all future glove projects.

Bubbles and one of her 10 million beds

I just took some new photos of Bubbles. Speaking of really cute bunnies, check out the bunny in this story from the Santa Fe New Mexican. His name is Ruby and he has the most spectacular ears! Like the girl in the article, I'm also committed to adopting only white bunnies from now on due to their ridiculous lack of popularity. (One pet rabbit rescue even offers free veterinary care for life if you adopt a white bunny with the equally unpopular ruby-eyes.) As it turns out Bubbles has one of the best personalities of any rabbit I've ever had and she's also the softest.

Bubbles couldn't wait until Easter to get started on her Easter basket full of basil. HAPPY EASTER!

More Stashbuster Socks

2011-04-13T17:40:00.001-06:00

I knit these socks to use up my half skein of Chroma (Pool Party, fingering weight). I paired it with Knit Picks' Stroll fingering weight in the Majestic color. It looks blue on the KP web site but it is really a rich, deep purple. These photos do not manage to show the color as its best either. Anyway, I love the color so much I just bought a few more skeins. The Stroll I've purchased recently really seems softer.

I still have some more of the Chroma left and the socks used about 1 1/3 skeins of Stroll. I used 60 sts and size 3.0 dpns but they are too big for my narrow feet. I think I'll give these as a gift instead.

Bubbles seems to approve.

Three Color Snowflake Socks

2011-04-10T11:16:00.000-06:00

These socks are for an April Challenge (designer Chrissy Gardiner) in Sock Knitters Anonymous on Ravelry. The only change I made was to add the third color. The Snowflake Sock pattern is from the Interweave Knits online store and it is a fast knit using sport weight yarn. I used three colors of Nature Spun sport - Butterfly Blue, Natural, and Peruvian Pink. I also went up a needle size after reading the Ravelry project pages to 3.0 mm dpns.

You can see the star toe pretty well in this next photo.

Nature Spun Butterfly Blue is one of my favorite yarn colors and I need to order some more soon.

Color Knitting Links for Early April

2011-04-06T16:33:00.001-06:00

I hope you don't mind some photos of Santa Fe to go with the links today. Above is the Loretto Inn which I photograph pretty much every time I'm in the City Different.

EASTER

HERE is a link to the Drops 2011 Easter Calendar. They say they aren't going to duplicate any of the free patterns from last year's Easter Calendar and so far it looks like they have a pair of stranded bunny socks and a stranded bunny potholder pattern.

Jean Greenhowe has some free patterns on her web site HERE including some for Novelty Eggs (scroll down).

What a cute idea - HERE is a scarf made of garter stitch marshmallow bunnies.

I think these knitted Easter chicks are really cute.

My knitted bunny finger puppets are a fast knit and a good addition to an Easter basket.

FREE PATTERNS

Melissa Leapman's gorgeous Tonal Fair Isle Jacket uses I think 3 colors of Cascade 220.

The Norrsunda Bladkrans mitten pattern with an open wreath Swedish motif also includes a matching hat.

The fun Jellyfish Fingerless Mitts pattern uses two colors of Palette.

This striking Mudcloth Inspired Afghan from Lion Brand is knit in one piece with a seed stitch border in two colors of worsted weight yarn.

PATTERNS FOR SALE

The Norwegian Baby Tyra sweater pattern from this Etsy shop is so adorable. Also check out their Folklore Mitten Kit.

Check out Elizabeth Lovick's March of the Fibres Sweater pattern on Etsy. I see bunnies and sheep and camels and goats and alpacas, oh my.

Anne's Flower Hat by Wenche Roald uses two colors of fingering weight yarn and has a picot hem. You can also knit matching mittens.

EBOOKS

If you purchase the Dale of Norway Book 219 ebook for knitted accessories for $10, you can get a $10 voucher for yarn or books.

If you enjoy entrelac, check out Anne Gilmour's Happy Trail's Entrelac Sock Book. You get five patterns for $8.

INTARSIA

Knit Picks is now offering several intarsia tote kits HERE. I think Harbor Lights is my fave.

Check out the Verdant Wrap in the new Knitty. It uses a different intarsia method - I didn't read it thoroughly but it looks like the background color was knit along with the leaf color and then just the leaf color was done in intarsia?

EYE CANDY

Read through this whole thread from the Russian Color Knitting forum on Ravelry for some incredible photos of current and historical Russian stranded knits.

Swoon! Rainbow Toe-Up Entrelac Socks with an entrelac heel even - these are quite spectacular.

I really like Craftivore's Manly Man Hat for her DH with the large head and especially that she states the size is "Pumpkin 23 inches".

Check out Katri63's Swatch Blanket that uses Kaffe Fassett's patterns and her own hand-dyed yarn.

Another great idea! Mrspetersson used the multi-directional scarf pattern and Kauni yarn to make this beautiful Rainbow Blanket.

Jenannbec made a cute Checkerboard baby sweater to match my Checkerboard Mesa hat pattern.

MISCELLANEOUS

HERE are instructions for making your own glove or mitten blockers using just rubber gloves and rice! I've linked to this one before but HERE is another mitten blocker you can easily make from the Kathryn Ivy web site.

I'm getting inspired to knit some knee highs and I thought these Knee High Sock Blockers on Etsy would be helpful.

If you are interested in getting serious about color, Color Wheel Pro has a free download of their software so you can play around with color schemes.

This is pretty fun - the Random Stripe Generator from Biscuits and Jam. Just pick your colors and your stripe widths and you can see how they'll look.

I'm greatly enjoying the extra knitting time that comes with the advent of baseball season (even if all my favorite teams are currently losing). I hope to have two new pairs of colorful socks to show you by this weekend.

Stash Photos

2011-04-01T12:49:00.002-06:00

Well here we are finally at Flash Your Stash Day. In my defense color knitters need a larger stash, my stash is smaller than it used to be, and I'm a fast knitter so I still don't think I've reached SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy). Click on any photo to see it larger.

First is a drawer with a few UFOs and some future projects I've kitted up in advance.

And here is my entire stash on the couch. Bottom right is sock yarn, then various worsted weight wools, then the Cascade 220 in round balls, then all my alpaca. Top right is a bin of vintage yarn and some other sport and fingering weight yarns.

Here's a photo a few years old of my stash when I kept most of it in the armoire. I think the stash is about the same size as it was then.

This is a very old photo when my stash was the largest and I kept it in neat cubes. Since then I've given some away to a young knitter who needed her own stash and I've tried to rein in the yarn spending by mainly buying yarns and colors with a specific purpose in mind. Previously I'd find a yarn line I liked and just buy all the colors.

It seems ironic to announce this on today of all days but I just received an email from Webs that they are having a huge sale for the month of April. Cascade 220 is only $4.95!

My Knitting Book Collection

2011-03-30T13:23:00.000-06:00

Today I'm dreaming about the craft room of my future and looking for inspirational photos. We hope to finally buy a house soon and my second wish after a large kitchen is a room completely devoted to crafts. I know it will be the only room painted white so that the colors of the yarn will shine. I also don't want carpet because I am always dropping pins whenever I drag out the sewing machine. Of course a special corner for Bubbles and all her bunny beds and toys is important. I still am not sure about yarn storage - I like it on display but I do think it is safer covered. I may look into finding some crystal clear containers for yarn.

In preparation for Flash Your Stash Day Friday I also took photos of my knitting books.

On the top shelf are my knitting notebooks and a few manila folders containing printed out patterns. The second shelf includes a few books on embroidery, felting, and spinning.

Most of my sock books are on the third shelf and the fourth shelf is mainly for Starmore, Fassett, and the wonderful Threads compilation books.

Next I have more color knitting books and one of my prized possessions, the very first Rowan magazine. The white spiral bound books at the bottom are the very fun vintage reproductions from Iva Rose. I have Butterick's Fancy and Practical Knitting and The ART of Knitting, Weldon's Practical Knitting and Practical Stocking Knitter #11, and Paton's Collection of Knitting and Crocheting Receipts from 1903.

HERE is a blog post I did with some fun quotes and photos from the Iva Rose booklets, including a pattern for a knitted coffee filter and knitted reins for children who like to pretend they are horses?? BTW, in case you are wondering why my early blog posts such as that one have no comments, it is because not once but twice I had to use different methods of providing comments and unfortunately I lost many comments through sometime in 2007.

Stashbuster Socks

2011-03-25T14:04:00.000-06:00

I love the color combination of orange and raspberry. I am trying to use up some of my stash of discontinued yarns and I had both orange and raspberry in Elann's discontinued Devon sport weight yarn. I didn't have a full skein of either so I added some white and did an afterthought heel in case I ran out of yarn. The colors in this first photo are the truest.

For these socks I used the Waves pattern in More Sensational Knitted Socks, size 3 dpns, a CO of 60 sts, and a picot hem.

I decided to stripe the heel in case I was running out of any of the 3 yarns. I held up the sock in progress to DH and asked him if he thought the striped heel made the socks look too crazy. His response? "Oh that ship has already sailed." I guess not everyone likes the combo of orange and raspberry!

Check out the gorgeous orange/raspberry socks on the cover. I need to find more bright orange and raspberry colored yarns to make them.

Jogless Stripes and My Sock Yarn Stash

2011-03-21T14:15:00.006-06:00

Most of the methods used for making stripes match up at the end of rows are noticeable to me. You can knit the stitch on the row below together with the first stitch of the new stripe color, knit the stitch on the row below of the first stitch of the second row of the stripe, you can slip the first stitch of the second row of the stripe, or you can knit the first stitch of the new stripe with both colors. Because I think they are all noticeable I opt for the simplest method.

Before I start a new stripe color, I take the yarn for the new color UNDER and to the RIGHT of the other yarn(s) before knitting the new stripe. Essentially I'm catching the other yarn(s) with the new yarn at the beginning of the new stripe. It looks like this on the right side. (Pardon the crease from blocking the socks flat - I just read that wet blocking items inside out will avoid this crease so I'll try that next time.) I also make sure to cinch the two yarns at the beginning of the row to try to get rid of those noticeable larger stitches.

It looks like this on the reverse of the work. I have talked about this method previously using my Spruce Mountain Mittens HERE - the pink mittens used my method and the green methods did not use any jogless stripe method.

I recently re-organized my entire stash. In the process I took all my yarn out and put it on the couch. (I'm amazed it all fit on the couch!) I am waiting to show you the entire stash until April 1st which is Flash Your Stash Day. Here's my sock yarn stash - I really love looking at my sock yarns because of all the bright colors. A lot of it is Kroy in bright candy colors I bought on sale years ago. The Baby Ull at the bottom right isn't specifically sock yarn but I think I'll test it for socks anyway.

Striped Chroma Socks

2011-03-17T13:36:00.000-06:00

I'm finally done fixing my blog template. I ended up with something simple although I do like the big photo of Ms. Bubbles overseeing the proceedings.

Here's a very easy way to add color to a pair of plain vanilla socks. I used two skeins of Knit Picks' fingering weight Chroma, Regency and Pool Party, and THIS free pattern for these socks.

For some reason I like the fingering weight Chroma better than the worsted weight; it seems more springy. I think if you bought three skeins of Chroma (in different colorways) you could do three pairs of these socks, all in different color combos.

I normally don't like multi-colored yarns but my opinion of yarns with longer color changes seems to be improving. I may also buy some Mochi Mochi and Noro Kureyon sock to use for stranded socks. Jimmy Beans Wool currently has the Noro Kureyon sock yarn on sale for 40% off.

Color Links and Color Cards

2011-03-15T17:32:00.001-06:00

BOOKS

Good news! According to this message thread it sounds like Alice Starmore intends to re-release her Charts for Colour Knitting later this year and will re-release Tudor Roses next year.

This Amazon book, Knit Your Own Royal Wedding, cracks me up. I like the Queen and the Corgis the best.

Norwegian Knitting Designs by Annichen Sibbern Bohn is being reprinted - I really like the socks shown on the Look Inside preview.

Fair Isling on Blue Moon includes 3 pairs of socks and one pair of mittens using Blue Moon Fiber Arts beautiful multi-colored yarns. You can also buy the kits separately HERE.

FREE PATTERNS

I've mentioned this pattern before but since Easter will be here soon, check out these cute Easter socks from Drops. They also have an Easter themed potholder you can knit HERE.

If you love corrugated ribbing as much as I do, check out this cute Brand New Corrugated Pillbox hat.

The Vanamo Fingerless Mitts use DK weight yarn and the pattern is available in English and Finnish.

The adorable stranded toddler pullover Pondemonium features everything you'd find in a pond.

Check out these hilarious Das Monster baby longies.

Knit some pretty Easter Eggs from Little Cotton Rabbits.

The Ingela Mittens use peace symbols and many colors of sport weight yarn.

PATTERNS FOR SALE

If you love NY, the Empire State Gloves may be for you. I love how the pattern says they fit one size - women's dainty.

The Inspired by Bohus Stickning Scarf uses worsted weight Chroma for the color changes.

Kristin Spurkland's striking Greenland Hat uses Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift yarn.

The New Zealand Tiki Mittens by Genny Stevens have a design based on Maori mythology and use fingering weight yarn.

Angie Easterday's Andean Style Hat - Chullo can be made with or without the earflaps.

Torirot's Pepperkakevotter mitten pattern comes with charts for squirrel, hedgehog, camel, reindeer, cat, lamb, snail and pig designs and you can also decide whether you prefer a peasant or sore thumb.

I may have to make the Trampled Rose Fingerless Mitts by Beverly Mazzarella.

KALs

The Rosemarkie Vest KAL (from Celtic Collection) starts today and is a good pattern for beginners as it uses only 6 colors and one chart.

On March 25 the Fair Isle Tote Kal begins and it also looks to be a great way to learn stranded color knitting.

MISCELLANEOUS

Interweave is selling a video download, A Knitter's Guide to Color with Laura Bryant. There is a free preview on Youtube HERE.

HERE are instructions on how to make your own knitting needle case.

Knit Picks has a Youtube video HERE on color selection for multi-color knitting using Palette.

Speaking of Palette, here are the homemade color cards I ordered. It really is interesting how different some of the colors look in person compared to the photos on their web site. Thanks to Mary (fiberfanatic1 on Ravelry) for taking on such a project. If you want color cards of your own, keep an eye on the Knit Picks' Lovers forum on Ravelry for announcements of the next co-op. I think they're also doing one for Wool of the Andes.

Also, if you need color cards for Virtual Yarns, check THIS message thread to see how to sign up with a Raveler who is making them. I don't need them because I was lucky enough to receive these back when they gave away their own color cards.

Colors of Santa Fe Socks

2011-03-08T11:23:00.002-07:00

Thanks all for your comments after my short rant the other day! I especially liked "It's orange!" DH the therapist always says I'm a reactive person which I suspect means I overreact in therapy-speak. Also, I'm in the process of trying to change my blog's template so don't be alarmed if it looks strange for a while. The hat in the title photo is an experiment I did on intarsia in the round. I used my spindle to spin each color from a kit of a million different colors of roving, maybe from Brown Sheep?

Here are my Stephanie van der Linden socks for the February Sockdown Challenge in the Ravelry Sock Knitter's Anonymous group. The pattern is the Color of the Andes Socks from the book Around the World in Knitted Socks. There are three shades of turquoise plus gray and orange so I knew in advance the colors probably wouldn't photograph that well. (Turquoise and red are the two colors I can never seem to photograph well.) Most of the yarns are Elann's Sock it to Me and the orange is some old Kroy and I believe I used size 2 (US) dpns.

I made a few modifications. I omitted the bi-color purl bumps in the ribbing (for some reason bi-color purl bumps freak me out), made both the ribbing and cuff longer, omitted the three color rows in the cuff from sheer laziness, and subbed an afterthought heel for the short row heel. I did four rows of plain stockinette stitch before I started the decreases in the heel and that seems to fit me much better.

Undergrowth Hat, Extra Leafy

2011-03-03T16:14:00.002-07:00

I know I should have used colors with a stronger contrast but I wanted to use these yarns anyway. This is the Undergrowth Hat (in the current Knitty) and I used Wool of the Andes Sport in grass and amethyst. This yarn tends to be a bit fuzzy, especially if you end up ripping anything out. I knit the large and went up a needle size to fit my large head and it fits perfectly. The design is inspired by hosta leaves.

I channeled my inner Nicky Epstein and added some additional leaves (page 37, Knitted Embellishments).

The only other change I made is that I did a row of purl sts before the braids instead of a row of knit sts. I wanted to see if it would keep the braids from curling and it did. I wrote down in my knitting journal to do that all the time when knitting braided cuffs.

Short Rant, A Cupcake, and a Few Links

2011-03-01T18:44:00.008-07:00

So it looks like my glove knitting booklet got dissed again on Amazon, this time by a reader who I think is having some confusion about thumb gussets. He/she stated that the booklet contains only one pattern (it contains two patterns) and wrote "Do not write "make the second glove as the first and reverse the thumb gore pattern". A novice knitter most likely has not reversed a pattern or even made their first pair of gloves." I NEVER SAID THAT - the Geometric Gloves use a sore thumb gusset and you knit two of the exact same glove and the Colorblock Gloves have a peasant thumb and there are separate instructions for the right and left hand thumbs.

The reviewer also reviewed The Knitter's Handy Book of Knitting Patterns and was also unhappy about the same right hand/left hand glove issue. I left comments under the reviews trying to explain that sore thumb gussets do not have a right and a left side so perhaps their confusion will be cleared up. It doesn't seem fair to receive a one star review that says things about my booklet (including using quotation marks??) that aren't even true.

To sweeten things up around here, how about a cupcake potholder? I was approached to do a book proposal for a British publisher last summer on the subject of knitted potholders. Each potholder was to highlight a different technique. The proposal was a rush job and not particularly pleasant and the cupcake would have looked better if the green I-cord was longer. I like the cherry though. I haven't heard back about the book but I have already decided to stop designing and writing technique booklets (and reading my Amazon reviews!!!) and learn to enjoy knitting again. I just have one final fingerless glove design to knit up next month using Carol Sunday's beautiful yarns.

Here are a few new links for color knitters. I am going to try to post these more frequently so you don't have 100 links to go through at a time.

FREE PATTERNS

Dale of Norway is offering this free pattern for a cute toddler dress with flowers (PDF).

Designer Varian Brandon has done a series of free chullo-type patterns with earflaps using Cascade 220: River Fire (my fave), River Blossom, and River Star.

I'd make this geometric Drops sweater for DH in a flash if it was sized up to XL. Best part? No boring plain color sections.

This colorful hat was inspired by the book the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and uses Shetland Spindrift.

PATTERNS FOR SALE

The Wintry Mix Mitts by Grace and Alice Schnebly use 3 colors of sport weight yarn.

I like these Zigzag Tams from Classic Elite Yarns.

The Douglas Mittens are a wonderful lined mitten using Cascade 220. I think DH would love these and it is usually hard to find colorwork mitten patterns he'd like.

I like the Cascade 220 colors used on these Folklore Mittens by Randi K. Design.

I love all of Mary Ann's designs - check out her newest Tulip Mittens. I love how you can add your initials and date on the inside of the thumb.

KALs

Here is a KAL for Ann Feitelson's pretty Hillswick Lumber sweater.

EBOOKS

The Four Seasons ebook includes four colorwork hat patterns for $6 CAD.

KITS

Holiday Yarns is offering this pretty sock kit, Coeur d'Oro.

BOOKS

Norsk Strikkdesign is being republished next month as Norwegian Knitting Designs.

ETA:

I apologize that I keep forgetting to mention the Warm Hats Not Hot Heads group to promote civility in politics no matter your political affiliation! HERE is their Ravelry page and they are attempting to knit hats for every member of Congress.

My Knitting Journals

2011-02-22T17:59:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one who still keeps a knitting journal? I know it seems repetitive in the age of blogs and Ravelry but I still find all sorts of things to add to my knitting journal. Below are a few of my journals over the years starting with the incredibly clever spiral notebook all the way to my current knitting journal (bottom right) which I purchased HERE on Amazon for $10. I really like it - it is called Persian Splendor.

Basically I just use anything that is lined to keep lists of my FOs. Other things I jot down in my knitting journals are unusual knitting abbreviations, interesting color combos I'd like to try, quotes on creativity or color, ideas for future projects, gifts given, special yarns I need to find a use for, receipts for my yarn, needle, and book purchases (not for the faint of heart!!), knitting resolutions, techniques I want to learn, measurements of people I knit for, hand tracings of people I knit for so I can get mitten and glove lengths right, ideas for future knitted gifts by recipient, reviews of books and patterns, and donations. One of my favorite uses for my journals lately is to write down interesting technique tips I read about on Ravelry. For instance, recently I read that if you knit two rows instead of one in waste yarn when doing a peasant thumb or afterthought heel, it is much easier to pick up the stitches later. I'll have to try that!

And of course journals are good to store little slips of paper signed by the greatest color knitter out there.

I used to donate more items to charity - for a while I was knitting rabbit themed items for the gift shop at the Colorado House Rabbit Society's shelter. I'd like to try to do better so I just sent the following items with DH to work. He works in treatment foster care with kids who are severely abused. They bounce around a lot from house to house so the knitted items go in a basket for them to take when they need some winter accessories. DH reports that they were a great hit, especially the hats.

My Week in Photos

2011-02-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

The exciting news this week in New Mexico is that we saw cold temperatures that haven't been seen here since 1971. Accordingly we had two pipes burst; the first one flooded the lower level of the house (luckily I don't have carpet!) and then the second one burst after the plumber had been here and left. That time only the laundry room was flooded. All in all it was a rather drastic method of cleaning my floors.

In less dramatic news DH bought me a nook for Valentine's Day (the regular not the color because my eyes didn't want a backlit ereader) so I could read library ebooks. I still love my old Kindle 2 (on the right) which I will still use for cookbooks. The Albuquerque library has a nice selection of ebooks but I may also join the Free Library of Philadelphia for their larger collection ($15 a year for out-of-state residents, click the purple download media button to see their ebooks ).

I knit DH another pair of socks. This time I made the Pennant Socks from Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks. I used Elann's Peruvian Highland Sport and size 4 (US) dpns and cast on 60 sts. And yes, unfortunately, DH wearing socks with sandals is a pretty common occurrence around here

I'm off now to finish my Colors of the Andes socks from Stephanie van der Linden's Around the World in Knitted Socks. I am using colors that remind me of Santa Fe.

Jan/Feb Color Knitting Links

2011-02-02T12:32:00.001-07:00

I completely spaced the January Color Knitting Links so I'm combining January and February for one huge list. I promise to try to keep the links to a more manageable size in the future.

FREE PATTERNS

The Peony Handwarmers include a feather and fan type cuff and are knit in DK weight yarn.

The mosaic Burntwater Socks use one solid and one multicolored sock yarn.

The My Rose Red hat by Christi Wasson uses two colors of worsted weight yarn and might be a perfect gift for a special Valentine.

The I Love Someone with Autism Beret uses three colors of Paton's Classic Wool.

This Drops baby sweater pattern has a rabbit motif and it even includes matching trousers and socks.

Maria Leigh's wild and crazy Brickwork socks use one solid and one variegated yarn for an eye-catching result. I may have to make these.

The Colorwork Turtleneck Sweater from Better Homes and Gardens uses worsted weight yarn and is a good choice for a beginning color knitter.

Bernat has this Yoke Sweaters for the Whole Family pattern available. The sweaters feature turtlenecks and should be quick to knit in bulky weight yarn.

HERE are some free patterns for Icelandic sweaters and a few hats using thick Lopi yarn.

The Helsingland Toddler mittens are a quick knit in Aran weight yarn and feature a flared cuff.

PATTERNS FOR SALE

I still have post-traumatic stress syndrome from having to read Beowulf in college but the rest of you might love these incredible Hwaet socks from Sanguine Gryphon which use some of the text from the first page of the manuscript. I love the yarns used for this project.

Barbara Gregory's Dragon Paws use fingering weight to make a great fingering weight mitten for dragon lovers of all ages.

Lynn DT Hershberger of Color Joy offers these colorful Keys and Coins Andean Style Hats with Optional Ear Flaps through Patternfish. The hats use a self-striping yarn along with a solid and are a good choice for a beginning color knitter.

Kirsten Jensen's Sant'Angelo Sweater is a gorgeous pattern knit in sport weight yarn. I love the flared cuffs.

If you love corrugated ribbing as much as I do, check out Lucy Neatby's Sizzling Hot Hat. It is double knit using sock yarn.

Rebecca Blair's elaborate and intricate Guardian Gloves use 3 colors a row and duplicate stitch in Palette yarn. Check them out to see how magnificent a stranded design can look when you add extra colors to each row.

Mary Jane Mucklestone's Halcyon Hat uses 6 colors of fingering weight yarn and looks like a good pattern for beginners.

Elinor Brown's Forest Mushroom Mittens use lots of my beloved braids with some simple color designs in 3 colors of sport weight yarn.

TECHNIQUES/REFERENCE

Tips and Techniques: Color Dominance in Stranded Knitting has a good photo showing a pair of geometric mittens with the dominant color switched on the second mitten.

Here's a PDF form you can fill out to keep track of which colors of Palette you have. Speaking of Palette, here's a great photo on Flickr of the Palette colors with names and numbers in grayscale so you can get a better idea of the contrast between colors.

I've been working on updating the group pages for the Stranded forum on Ravelry. Check it out especially the recommended Color Knitting Books list, Wool Yarns Recommended for Colorwork, Other Yarns Recommended for Colorwork, and Cast On and Bind Off Techniques.

There is a good thread HERE in the Xtreme Fair Isle Knitting group on Ravelry on Knitting with Older Eyes. My personal favorite suggestion from a fellow mod on the Stranded forum - put a white towel on your lap to help see your knitting better.

Another good Rav thread is this one on how to break out of color ruts in the Color Coordinated forum.

OTHER

Laura is giving away a free copy of her book about intarsia, Picture Perfect Knits. Just comment on her blog by tomorrow at 3 pm Pacific time to enter.

Sam from Lakeland is the chullo queen of Ravelry. Check out her project page for photos of dozens of gorgeous chullos.

Looks like Bea Ellis is selling off her inventory on Ebay HERE. Check it out if you're seeking any Dale of Norway patterns or yarn.

Need a new knitting notebook? You can't do much better than this cool Fair Isle notebook with a stranded wool cover from the Shetland museum.

Loopyworks' Fitted Jacket with Embroidery is a work of art. I'd make this myself but I doubt I'd ever wear it.

One of my favorite color knitting inspirations is MariannAn on Ravelry. Check out her mind-boggling Leaving for Miklagaard at Sunset socks. She used the Sandnes free Viking Ship pattern for some of the colorwork. Also check out her Tudor Roses socks using the Starmore Henry VIII pattern for inspiration.

Another Ravelry FO I love is Jenniferaf's Bohus Blue Shimmer Hat.

Here is a Chicago Tribune article on how traditional Fair Isle designs are inspiring today's fashions.

Beckyzzz's beautiful A.S. Inspired Sweater used colors from one of her mom's paintings.

Here's a good message thread about Jamieson and Smith raising the price of their Shetland yarns and the future for this industry.

I'm planning on trying out some new needles soon. First I'm going to get a pair of the 5" Kollage square double pointed needles for gloves and I also want to try some of the new 9" circular needles for mittens and socks. Has anyone tried either of these needles for colorwork?

EVENTS

We're starting a KAL on Ravelry's Stranded Forum for the Undergrowth Hat in the current issue of Knitty on the Stranded forum on February 15th. It uses two colors of sport weight yarn.

Our Glove Knitter's forum is doing a Stranded Gloves KAL. It starts March 1 and goes for two months and even includes prizes. I think I'm going to do the Red Bud Gloves by Alexis Winslow.

Knit Picks is holding an ongoing Colorwork KAL with reference info and links to some of their colorwork patterns.

SpillyJane is holding a contest. If you knit her free pattern for Camilla patterns (PDF here) and send her a photo before the end of February, she'll send you any of her patterns you choose.

February is Stephanie van der Linden month on Sock Knitter's Anonymous. Cast on any of her sock patterns in February and you have until the end of March to finish. There are lots of great prizes for some of the lucky competitors.

Turkish-Patterned Cap

2011-01-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

I ordered some of Knit Picks' Chroma yarn to test out for colorwork. This is the Turkish-Patterned Cap from Charlene Schurch's excellent book Hats On! I used size 4 (US) needles and Cascade 220 in black and Chroma worsted weight in the mid-winter colorway.

There is still a lot of the Chroma left (see above) so I think I'll also do some stranded fingerless mitts.

The single-ply Chroma was a lot softer than I expected although I wish it was more elastic.

This shows the colors the best. I only did one repeat of the chart before the crown decreases. The decreases are a bit confusing - I started the decreases one stitch before the row marker for the beginning of the row.

Mosaic Socks

2011-01-22T14:17:00.000-07:00

The January challenge for Sock Knitters Anonymous is mosaic socks. I used the 10 st. mosaic T-Pattern from Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks. My yarns are Knit Picks' Stroll Multi Paisley and Elann Sock it to Me in color 45130. I don't know why I don't do mosaic patterns more often because these were really fun to knit.

I couldn't find any smaller dpns than 3.0 mm so I did the 60 st. version of the socks. The looser gauge combined with the multi-color yarn made the mosaic pattern less crisp but I like the colors together.

Now to find a sock pattern to fit February's challenge - Man Socks!

Knitty Reviews My Glove Booklet

2011-01-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

My glove knitting booklet was reviewed in the current issue of Knitty. This was a great surprise since I sent them a review copy when I first published it years ago (maybe 2007?).

Here's the review:

"Glove knitting is a great find for the adventurous knitter who wants to design and create their own gloves. This very detailed technical guide provides the knitter with multiple styles of thumb and finger creation types as well as the pro and cons for each style. Each style is clearly defined and includes a “best used when” explanation. There are two patterns are included in the booklet. Both involve stranded colourwork. The first design is a good introductory style colourwork glove, while the second would be better suited to an experienced knitter. If you are ready to take the plunge and knit “off the grid”, then this booklet is an excellent resource to add to your collection. " They linked to the Lulu page for the booklet but the booklet is also available in print at Amazon and as a PDF download at Ravelry and Patternfish.

I've been organizing my future projects. I just ordered some purple and green Wool of the Andes sport to make the Undergrowth hat from the current Knitty and I also ordered some Palette to make the Heart of the Mesa Mittens, La Joie du Printemps mittens, and the Red Bud Gloves. I am also planning to make quite a few of these gorgeous double knit TPHPE potholders with my Cascade 220 stash.

Here is Bubbles getting her jaw rubbed which is her third favorite activity after eating and ripping up phone books.

Trondheim Headband and lots of KALs

2011-01-13T19:23:00.001-07:00

Pretty boring for the first FO of the year but I needed a headband and I wanted to test out Cascade 220 sport as a substitute in Dale of Norway patterns. Unfortunately my gauge wasn't anything close to the gauge specified for the pattern (Nagano) so it is back to the drawing board. I do love Heilo which was the yarn specified but it is expensive and I want a greater number of colors to choose from.

I'm working on some mosaic socks from one of the Charlene Schurch sock books for the Sock Knitter's Anonymous January challenge. Also, I still have to get to work on the sample showing all the different ways to deal with long floats.

I have a few color knitting announcements that can't wait until I get around to doing this month's links. First of all Mary (fiberfanatic1 on Ravelry) is putting together color cards for Knit Picks' Palette. For $5 plus $6 shipping you'll get 5 yards of each of 100 colors of Palette yarn. Go HERE for the original message and to sign up. She needs 40 participants to make Round 4 work.

Also, the I Make Mittens group on Ravelry is conducting several KALs (knitalongs) of interest. They currently have the NaKnitMitMo for January where they're doing a specially designed mitten by SpillyJane with some colorwork on the cuff. They are also doing a Zilboorg Top-Down Mitten KAL and an 11Mittensfor2011 challenge. There's all sorts of info on the message board HERE.

And did I tell you about our current KALs on the Stranded forum? I honestly can't remember. There are two KALs going on right now that you can sign up for - one for the lovely stranded Thistle Shawl by Ann/Pinneguri and one for the Caller Herrin Tam KAL which uses six colors of fingering weight yarn.

All About Floats, Part Two

2011-01-07T14:13:00.006-07:00

(Note: All About Floats, Part One is located HERE.)

The photo shows an assortment of my knitted items inside out. Click on the photo to see it larger. In general I do not weave or twist my floats so the reverse of the work looks like a mirror image of the design on the front. However there are a few spots on the items in the photo where I can see woven floats - mainly in the mitten at the bottom left in the cuff. It is a rabbit design so there were some long floats there.

Why are long floats a problem in stranded color knitting? Some knitters don't like having long loops on the back of their work - they worry their hands or toes or jewelry will get caught on them. (The fingers and toes issue is much more of a problem if you're knitting for children who obviously have smaller fingers and toes.) Some knitters worry that long floats will compromise the knitted work if the float gets caught in something and breaks.

I've never gotten any body parts caught in a float. However, I do knit with non-superwash wool almost exclusively and a nice sticky wool will keep the floats close to the back of the sweater. In fact in some cases (like if you're using ultra-sticky Shetland wool) the floats can actually felt to the knitting which is a bonus .

Long floats are also problematic because they can screw up anyone's tension, not just beginners. They definitely cause havoc in my own color knitting. I wonder how many new knitters have sworn off colorwork because they unwittingly tried to knit something with long floats and had poor results. I buy a lot of stranded patterns and I always appreciate when a designer takes long floats into account by breaking them up somehow.

My beef with really long floats is that they interfere with my flow. When you're knitting colorwork you can achieve a wonderful almost-meditative flow. Let's say you are knitting a Nordic snowflake design. You go across each row merrily knitting. I generally repeat the stitch numbers in my head so if it is 4 black, 3 white, 2 black, 1 white, I'll just say 4,3,2,1 throughout the row. However if it is 4,3,2,14 then I generally have to stop and make sure the 14 stitch float is long enough and I also usually re-count that 14 stitch float to make sure I counted the stitches right in the first place. It slows me down.

This brings me to the one and only rule in this series no matter how you deal with your floats:

EXREMELY IMPORTANT FLOAT RULE - Whenever you knit an especially long float - let's say 8 or more stitches (fewer if you're new to colorwork), always make sure you stretch out the float so it isn't too tight. There are two ways to do this. One way is to simply stop and stretch out the stitches on the right hand needle after a long float. In other words, if you knit 10 stitches in black and you are about to knit a stitch in white, stretch out those 10 black stitches on the right needle before you knit the white stitch to make sure your float is loose enough. Too loose floats are much better to have than too tight floats. Some knitters use one of their fingers to stretch out floats as they are knitting to save time. If you're knitting with one color in each hand, try using your middle right finger or your right index finger under or over the float to keep it loose.

You'll find knitting books and patterns and Ravelry members that absolutely insist you weave your floats every five stitches or every inch or whatever. You may also find some knitting books that insist you should never weave your floats. They're all wrong. You get to figure out the method that works the best for you. Some knitters get better tension when weaving floats and some knitters get better tension when leaving their floats alone. So if you are doing one method and you don't like the results, try another method. (More about that in Part Three of this series.)

I recommend that knitters new to colorwork start with a pattern that has short floats until they get their feet wet. But let's say you have your heart set on knitting a design with long floats for your very first project. First, consider knitting it in low contrast yarns if you are going to weave or twist your floats. If you are doing a black and white design (high contrast yarns) you are more likely to have issues with woven floats showing through the front of the work.

Another option is to tweak the color chart a bit. You can always add random stitches of the color that has long floats in any design. Remember the popular and cute Olympic Reindeer Hat I talked about in Part One with the really long floats between each moose? Check out Raveler Bartlebean's version - extra snowflakes were added to the design to reduce the size of the floats. Ladysmithknitter made the tree taller and added snowflakes. Lastly, you can duplicate stitch the section with the long floats (Omgirls did the reindeer antlers on her hat and Em-Jay did the entire reindeer in duplicate stitch) or you can even do intarsia in the round if the floats are extremely long.

In Part Three I'll show you all four methods of dealing with floats - weaving, not weaving, twisting, and tacking down floats on the back of your work and I'll list the pros and cons of each method. You'll be able to see what each method looks like from the front and the back and I'll load large versions of each photo as well.

END OF YEAR POST

2010-12-30T10:57:00.000-07:00

I was hoping to do more on floats this week but I'll get to it next week. Instead I wanted to look back at 2010 which was a good year overall. Knitting-wise perhaps not so much. I remember back a few years ago when I'd tally somewhere near a hundred small projects a year and this year it was more like 15-20. So that is my New Year's knitting resolution - to knit a lot more. I'd like to have more like 100 projects to show you in 2011. I have one final project to design using the gorgeous Sunday Knits yarns and then I'm going to focus on other people's designs while I work on a cookbook project.

The KP Chullo was my favorite project of the year. Here is a photo of it dry. I really like working with kits so I'm going to put some effort into finding colorwork kits to knit in 2011. I already know I'm going to get the Starmore Hat Trick kit and the Renaissance Dyeing Kilim Socks kit (3 colors per row!).

My fave design this year was my Chamrousse Gloves - I must have liked them because I knit them three times.

My favorite new book was Stephanie Van Der Linden's Around The World in Knitted Socks.

My favorite new yarn was the Stitch Nation Bamboo Ewe - I really need to order some more for a project.

My favorite online knitting discovery was Sock Knitter's Anonymous on Ravelry. I became involved last summer when my knitting mojo was pretty low and being around so many incredibly passionate knitters (with some serious knitting skills) was very therapeutic.

ONE LAST NOTE: You have until midnight (Mountain Time) tonight to vote for the Stranded forum's next KAL project. Go HERE to vote for all of your favorite projects; the KAL will start January 1.

Bubbles has made some New Year's Resolutions as well - 1) Take more bunny naps, 2) Eat more delicious treats, and 3) Insist on more jaw rubs from her two bunny slaves.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

A Chullo for Christmas

2010-12-21T17:28:00.000-07:00

I decided to do an additional Christmas present for DH at the last-minute - this is the Andean Chullo from the Knit Picks kit that is unfortunately no longer available. I made some changes after reading some of the Ravelry comments about the hat. 1. I added 3 colors of teal to the beige and brown colors that came in the kit. 2. I added 16 sts to the cast on number. 3. I made the hat much shorter. 4. I striped the top decrease section. 5. I made the I-cord ties longer. 6. I did thicker applied I-cord to make sure the ear flaps won't curl. 7. I used this Raveler's method for the I-cord so the cast on edge wouldn't show through the I-cord.

I think it will fit him really well - the hat is wet in the photo but I'll get a shot of him wearing it after Christmas . When I got the kit several weeks ago he was the one who decided on adding teal for some extra colors and he also specifically requested no alpacas. (There actually is a very small alpaca motif near the top - the alpacas are black - but I doubt he'll notice.) Best of all it will be a surprise because he never pays attention to what I'm knitting.

Knitting the chullo was so much fun; I immediately went and downloaded Mary Ann's Polar Bear Chullo and I think I'll get Shirl the Purl's Blossoms Chullo pattern as well. Plus I want to make another one of the Knit Picks chullos with the alpaca patterns.

Another FO is this gingerbread house we made from a kit we received as a gift. It was DH's wacky idea to use cheerios on the roof but my piping skills for the window frames were non-existent. Plus DH kept eating the candy during assembly so we ran out.

Bubbles is modeling one of her Christmas gifts - a new plush bed. She currently has about 12 in all shapes, colors, and sizes and she never actually manages to get her entire self in the bed. She prefers to position only her front half or back half in a bed or sometimes she will stretch out over two beds. It's a pretty tough life for our large white house bunny.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday - I will try to return next week with more about floats.

What's so special about red?

2010-12-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

I watched the HGTV White House Christmas decoration show last night; I've been watching this every year for a while now. The hostess this year, Genevieve Gorder, said something very intriguing. She said that red is the only color that always matches perfectly with itself in all its various shades. Is that really true? You can make an all purple knitted project that wouldn't look good? Of course now I want to do an all red knitting project.

I did find an old blurry photo of an all-red Spontaneous Scarf I knit in a zillion shades of red.

I also remember hearing from a quilting show that red can be used as a neutral with other colors. After that I knit my Peace Gloves in a background of red with all pastels. They turned out better than I thought they would.

I just finished adding some color theory links for the Stranded group on Ravelry and I thought I'd share them here.

Suzyn’s Color Theory for Knitters - from Knitty

Technicolor Knitting by Julie Theaken in Knitty (Wouldn't this be a great name for a book?)

PDF from Knit Picks on Color Theory

Color Theory - Color Choice in Knitting: How to Select a Color Palette for Knitting Projects - Suite 101

Knitter’s Review - How to Use a Color Wheel

ALL ABOUT FLOATS, PART ONE

2010-12-10T15:16:00.003-07:00

I'm beginning a multi-part series about floats in stranded color knitting. I've discussed them before HERE but apparently I have more to say. A lot more! I'm going to show you four ways to deal with floats and you'll be able to see how the front and the back of the work looks.

Floats happen when you knit with two colors. If you knit three stitches in a row in one color, you'll have a float (or strand) across the back of your work in the other color three stitches long. A float is considered long when it is about an inch or so long, about 5-7 sts long depending on yarn weight.

Today I want to talk about how you can determine if a pattern has long floats. Time and time again I see beginners choose patterns with really long floats without knowing what they are getting into. Basically short, geometric patterns have short floats and patterns with asymmetrical larger patterns such as animals or robots often have larger floats.

These Bunnies and Carrots Hats have really long 15-20 st long floats between the bunny's ears.

No long floats in this rainbow mitten design I abandoned.

A really popular pattern during the Olympics was this cute reindeer hat. It has long floats between each reindeer and the original pattern used high contrast colors - white and dark blue - for the design. What this means is that if the floats were woven, the dark color could possibly show through to the front of the work. The Ravelry project photos for the hat are interesting to read - some knitters used intarsia in the round or duplicate stitch for the reindeer to avoid the long floats.

Traditional Fair Isle designs from the Shetland Isles pride themselves on not using floats longer than five stitches. Scandinavian designs do use longer floats but some savvy designers use single stitches or small designs in more complex motifs to help break up long floats. In the famous Dale of Norway polar bear sweater by Mette Handberg, check out the geometric patterning inside the polar bear. That was done to keep the floats from being excessively long.

I always consider the length of the floats when deciding on a pattern. A few long floats here and there won't deter me but if I see a pattern with many long floats I know it will take me longer to knit (whatever method you use for floats can interrupt the flow of your color knitting) and could possibly cause tension problems. Of course, long floats can also give you a spectacular looking hand knit so they are often worth the trouble.

Here are a few stranded patterns from my Ravelry queue.

Long floats - Nightingale Socks, Running Horse Hat (section of horses), Dancing Stars Hat

Short floats - La Gran Fair Isle Pillow, Quo Vadis Mittens, October Fair Isle Pillow

December Color Knitting Links

2010-12-03T14:24:00.002-07:00

Wow - I have a LOT of links today. Go grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea first. I tried to focus on holiday knits you can make quickly. If you don't have time to knit but need some gorgeous stranded hand knit items to give as gifts, I highly recommend the Baltic Shop for lovely Latvian mittens, gloves, hats etc. to send to your family and friends.

ETA: Just realized Drops is doing a Christmas Advent type calendar with a free holiday pattern each day. Click HERE each day to see the newest pattern.

FREE PATTERNS

I love Melissa Leapman's Fair Isle Pullover that uses Cascade 220.
Amy Loberg offers these pretty Winter Wonder Mittens that use sport weight yarn.
Eloise Narrigan's Rabbit Knee Socks are meant to be worked flat in intarsia but I might do them in duplicate stitch.
The Mitaines Nuit d'Hiver have a lovely snowy night scene on them and are knit in Palette.
I used to love the Magpies when we lived in Colorado so I adore these cute Magpie Mittens.
I've said before I'm a huge fan of Heather Desserud (I'm working on one of her designs) and she is offering her tenth mitten design, Lotus Mittens, for free.
Kathleen Taylor's Elephant Tam pattern has instructions for an adult and child's version.
Sandra Jager offers these cute Reindeer Socks.
These incredible Dizzy Knee Socks remind me a bit of Lucy Neatby's Paradoxical Mittens.
Lion Brand's Shadows and Light Scarf pattern looks like it will knit up quickly in Aran weight yarn.
Drops 122 offers several free reindeer patterns - knee socks, hat, gloves, and a couple updated reindeer sweaters.
Check out Torirot's adorable Selbu Sea Horse Mittens.

PATTERNS FOR SALE

Sandra Jager's Sleigh Ride Tammy is just perfect for a holiday gift.
Tabitha Rose's Snake Patterns are realistic enough to send a shiver down my spine. You can buy the patterns in an ebook or separately and they'd be a perfect gift for a little boy.
String Theory 2.0 offers these lovely Lotus Flower Gloves using a solid and a variegated yarn.
Lynnette Meek's Eastern Medley ebook offers an interesting variety of colorwork sock techniques.
Galina Carroll's Mittens for Mother combine colorwork with embroidery for a striking mitten.
On Etsy I found these pretty lined Nor'easter Mittens.
Denise's Needleworks has Cynthia Wasner's Wild Blue Horses Cap pattern for sale to match the sweater.

KITS

Kathryn Alexander has a new DooDad scarf kit for sale that uses 32 colors.
It looks like you can buy kits for these Bohus sweaters from the Bohuslan Museum if you email them.

HOLIDAY

Here's a quickie free Christmas Wreath pattern that can work as an ornament or gift topper.
Savannah Cottage offers an O Hannukah! dog sweater pattern for sale with menorahs and dreidels.
For only $4.95 on Etsy you can purchase a pattern for ten of these adorable Jolly Tots Dolls - any of these dolls would be a wonderful stocking stuffer.

EYE CANDY

Here's Pantone's 2010 Fall Color Forecast. I'm not that thrilled with them this year though.
Check out MuzzerZ's Christmas Tree Skirt knit in Cascade 220.
I've talked about Janine's Parcheesi log cabin afghan pattern before but I just had to show you this version done in sock yarn scraps by Knitorious. Gorgeous!!
Another incredible colorful scrap blanket is debbruskin's Mola Blanket.
Coolest Christmas Stockings ever! Spindleknitter's Patrick's Stocking.
I love Libbyuk's Foolish Virgins Scarf.

I wish it looked like this here today but it is still pretty warm, in the 50's and sunny. Poor Santa is going to keel over from heat exhaustion!

Thick Blue Cabled Socks

2010-11-29T12:44:00.001-07:00

I'm working on a big list of Christmas knitting links. I hope to post them by the end of the week because I found some possibilities for last minute holiday knitting.

Here's a quick FO in my continuing efforts to knit more of the free Drops patterns for thick socks. These socks were a nice mindless knit but cables at that weight were a bit tough on the hands. The pattern specifies bulky yarn but I used two strands of Wool of the Andes and size 8 (US) dpns. I originally intended these for DH but he thought they were too girly?? It was for the best since I only had four skeins (two of each color blue) and I would have run out of yarn if I was trying to make them for him.

Christmas Knitting

2010-11-19T15:52:00.000-07:00

I am not doing much in the way of holiday knitting this year but I did make a few items for DH. I'm planning a backpacking themed Christmas stocking for him this year. I bought a little firestarter, a tiny battery-operated reading light, and a fleece neck gaiter. I'm going to make him some homemade trail mix and energy bars. Above you can see the knitted items I'm adding to the stocking. I did some worsted weight socks (Valley Yarns Northampton) with the requested 10 inches of ribbing (snore) and also made some fingerless mitts. They look strange but he has a pretty wide thumb angle so I think they'll fit him well. Actually it turns out I have a bit of yarn left so I might add a quick ribbed headband in the same yarn.

Bubbles would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! As usual she's starving and hopes her Thanksgiving feast starts as soon as possible.

November Color Knitting Links

2010-11-12T12:09:00.000-07:00

An FO from years ago - Turkish socks from the Zilboorg book

November Color Knitting Links

Bea Ellis Knitwear, one of my favorite sources for Norwegian patterns and yarns, seems to be gone for good now; previously there was just a message on the web site that they'd return Oct 2010.

Two Swans Yarns is now offering color cards for Jamieson's Shetland yarns.

Jamieson & Smith, the other purveyors of Shetland wool, have an interesting blog. Check out the winners of the Shetland sheep photo contest.

I like to have a simple colorwork project going at all times, one that is easily memorized, to balance out the more complicated stuff. This Sandnes unisex pullover looks like it would fit the bill without a lot of solid color knitting.

I was alerted to the fun Night of the Lepus socks in my comments - you have to join the Google Super Sock Scarefest to get the free pattern - but they are a good project for those of us who are owned by bunnies.

Anne Carroll Gilmour, who wrote the Happy Trails sock book, offers a free pattern for Ring-Toss Stash Busting Scrap Socks that look like a lot of fun. If I can hunt down enough colors, I plan to make these for the December Stashbuster Sockdown challenge in Ravelry's Sock Knitter's Anonymous group. Also, I am thrilled to find out she has the pattern for her incredible cabled Teampall Breachain hat available on Ravelry. I think I'll tackle the hat after the holidays.

I just started the La Joie du Printemps mittens in alpaca when I also fell in love with Heather Desserud's Moulin Rouge mittens. She's such a talented designer!

Drops is offering a Christmas workshop by putting all their free holiday patterns in one place. Most of the patterns look like nice quick knits for last-minute holiday knitting.

I may have linked to this before but I love the free pattern for the children's Starry Nights sweater so much it is worth mentioning twice. There's an informal KAL for it HERE.

With the much-awaited re-release of Poetry in Stitches, Nordic Fiber Arts is offering yarn packs for each of the sweaters in the book.

I just discovered the Just Batty Knee Socks - the bat design would work for Halloween or if, like me, you just like bats.

My favorite recent Ravelry project is ableramm's Adult Charms and Amulet Jacket - an interpretation of Debbie New's Tam Jacket in a zillion colors. Beautiful!!

It looks like there are some upcoming books I can look forward to - Favorite Sock Patterns from Around the World featuring patterns by Nancy Bush and Anna Zilboorg to name a few and Kathleen Taylor's Fearless Fair Isle Knitting.

Book Review: Mastering Color Knitting by Melissa Leapman

2010-11-09T17:05:00.000-07:00

Mastering Color Knitting: Simple Instructions for Stranded, Intarsia, and Double Knitting by Melissa Leapman (available 11/09, Potter Craft)

Previously I've purchased all the books I've reviewed on my blog but I specifically asked for a review copy of this one. I'm thrilled there are more books available to help knitters learn the joy of knitting with more than one color.

One thing I keep learning from Ravelry's Stranded forum is that color knitters have about a million different ways to arrive at the same end result. I've linked before to Ixtab's unique method of knitting 2 or 3 strands inside out with the yarns tensioned around her neck. One of the Stranded forum's moderators, an advanced traditional Fair Isle knitter, prefers to (gasp!) knot her yarn ends. And I've heard from dozens of knitters who insist the traditional yarn dominance rules do not apply to them. (I talked about this previously HERE.)

If you are new to color knitting learning all the different methods can be overwhelming and most knitters will prefer to just learn one way to do things at first to get their feet wet. The section on stranding in Mastering Color Knitting is geared for beginners with simple instructions and includes many graphs and diagrams that are clear and easy to read.

The methods Melissa Leapman teaches in the book and in her knitting workshops involve weaving all floats over 1" long, securing her yarn ends as she knits, and avoiding using three colors per row. Personally I try to avoid weaving floats, I secure my yarn ends during finishing using reverse duplicate stitch, and I occasionally use 3 and 4 color rows (they're usually in Dale of Norway designs) but her advice is very helpful for beginners. The book has a nice reassuring tone for those who find color knitting daunting. She shows several different ways to hold the yarns and talks a lot about reading charts. She even includes a two-page section on designing stranded patterns.

Hat Pattern from the Stranded Section

My personal favorite parts of the book are her discussions on intarsia in the round (she offers three methods) and the section on various types of steeks. Mastering Color Knitting includes 12 projects along with the technique info.

Beautiful Intarsia Coat

I think this book shines in the third section on reversible two-color double knitting as frankly I haven't seen that many other books in print that discuss this fun technique other than the M'Lou Baber book which focuses on jackets and coats.

Double Knit Two-Color Hat

I especially recommend this book for beginners in any of the techniques as she does manage to keep the instructions simple as stated in the title. I was originally going to give the book away to a knitting student but I am keeping it so I can try some more two-color double knitting.

While I'm at it, I thought I'd list some other color knitting books I recommend.

Color by Kristin by Kristin Nicholas - I never reviewed this one but it is one of my faves. I think of her designs as exuberant and her passion for the subject is incredible. Plus she shows a new-to-me way of dealing with floats!

Elizabeth Lovick's Fair Isle Workbook - I love how she frequently emphasizes that there are no right or wrong ways to do Fair Isle knitting. Plus it is the only technique book I've ever seen that shows how to fix mistakes in stranding!. My review of this excellent ebook is HERE.

Alice Starmore's Fair Isle Knitting - I don't even do traditional Fair Isle knitting but I think this book is spectacular, especially the section where she takes nature photos and interprets them with her knitting. It has recently been reprinted so you have no excuse not to buy it.

Intarsia: A Workshop for Hand and Machine Knitting by Sherry and Keely Stuever - Rich in technique (and diagrams and photos), this self-published book (available at Elann I think) is a must-have if you're doing intarsia. Their method of dealing with the yarn ends to achieve beautiful stitches on the end of each block of color is pure genius. (I showed this method in the intarsia sock photo on my blog post HERE.)

Sheila McGregor's Traditional Fair Isle Knitting and Traditional Scandinavian Knitting. These two Dover reprints have hands-down my favorite color design charts, all helpfully divided by stitch count/multiples.

Three Pairs of Socks

2010-11-07T18:21:00.000-07:00

I finished these socks during the World Series. I am trying to find more patterns for thicker socks and I'm hoping to make more of the lovely free Drops patterns

The first pair are 116-42 Socks with a Pattern in Karisma and some Elann Highland Peruvian sport weight. I did an afterthought heel and added some corrugated ribbing.

The second pair are 0-566 Socks with Christmas Pattern. The original pattern used just the red and white colors and I wish I hadn't added the green. Oh well. I did my usual heel and an abbreviated toe.

For these socks I was trying to see if I could get away with just two balls of Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool (worsted) for some hiking socks for DH. Apparently not as he said he prefers 10 inches of ribbing. Also, looking at this photo I realized I need to make the heel flap longer for his socks next time. I used size 4 dpns and 48 sts and went from there.