Sunday, May 29, 2011

"I Am Not Infallible" Socks

So, Erin always tells me I pick out the best patterns for my yarn or vice versa. That was mostly true, til I hit this pair of socks. These were to be my project for my knitting night get together and started off as the Twinkleberry socks, but the pretty pattern was completely lost in the colorway (as shown below).
Betcha you can't tell WHAT that pattern's supposed to look like!

The yarn is from Creatively Dyed Yarns and is the colorway Big Figure.
I love, love, love this colorway. It has spots of hot pink, white, and purple red so deep it looks black, on a backdrop of a dark pink. I love how girly it is!

I was so excited about that pattern. It was really easy to remember, having a short pattern repeat, and it produced a lovely look. However, the colors of the yarn just weren't working for it. So, I checked out my favorites on Ravelry and came up with NOTHING that looked like it would go with this colorway. Seventy something faved sock patterns, and not-a-one that screamed "Pick me! Pick me!". Onto another search for sock patterns I went (the tally is now 85 faves), looking for something feminine but not lacey. I found this pattern and knew it was the one!

This pattern is not on any website other than Ravelry, so if you like it you'll have to have an account (it's free) with Ravelry. In my opinion, the selected colorway for the pattern's featured photo does an injustice to this pattern; I almost passed it by. However, at the last minute I decided to check it out anyhow.

I printed out the pattern, did a gauge swatch, got started and have had a hard time putting them down ever since! I am really digging this pattern. It's another pattern that has short pattern repeats and is super easy to remember! And, I think you could pull off making this as a man's sock, if you have the right colorway.

There is one thing, however, that has rained on my parade, and it should be pretty obvious from the above photo. The yarn on the inside of my caked yarn (sock on left) is a lot less saturated in color than the outside of my cake (sock on the right). Bummer....

Onto the knitting technicalities!

I am in between the small and medium size for this sock. So, instead of knocking off some stitches, I decided to just use a smaller needle size in some places. I got gauge with US 1. I cast-on using US 1.5 to get me a bit more give at the top and knitted one pattern repeat with the 1.5's. I then switched to the 1's and knit two pattern repeats, then to 0's for four pattern repeats. Now I am back up to the 1's, completed one and a half repeats for the right sock and am ready for the heel flap. I plan on returning to the 0's after I have completed the gusset.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Mother's Catkin

So, my A-Froggin' We Shall Go cardi has been put on hold yet again. (And, quite frankly, I don't mind this time as I have had a big set back with it.) Now I am working on my gift to my mother for Mother's Day. I told her I would make the Catkin Shawl for her. I then left the choice of color and yarn options up to her and soon found myself hard-pressed to find what she wanted.

My mother wanted two shades of turquoise or teal, plus I had to be careful with the fiber content as she didn't like the wool piece she recently nicked from my sister. Hee hee. At first I regretted my decision of offering to knit this for her; I could not find anything at all that had two shades of the same color let alone that was more plant fiber than animal. I was ready to pull out my hair. Then, just as I had given up, a complete and total fluke led me to Knit Picks' Comfy fingering yarn, and I was saved! Really, who would have thought....

Anyhow, here's how far I've gotten:

Not so far, considering I've actually spent at least four hours on this thing. I have been doing a lot of tinking, and this is cotton yarn. All I have to say!