I wanted to make a new cardigan for Thing 2 as he is need of more winter wear and I found the perfect pattern b19-2 from Drops. (Rav link ) It’s a simple cardigan with a colourwork yoke.

We popped into town, where there are several wool-bearing shops in close proximity, and went to a lovely little shop called Net Garn. They carry several lines including the Drops wool, Kauni, Sandnes Garn, Lopi and more. In other words, lots of lovely woolly goodness. I didn’t see any colours the called to me in the recommended yarn so I picked out some lovely Sandnes Garn Smart, which is a superwash wool in a DK weight. I picked out a strong red for the main colour, and a green, orange and off-white for the colourwork portion.

After doing a gauge swatch, measuring Thing 2, and reading through the pattern, I’ve decided to use slightly smaller needles and knit the 12-18 month size, which should produce a 6-9 month finished garment. I also decided that it seemed silly to knit the ribbing then decrease the number of stitches to work the body, so I cast on the number of stitches required for the body for the ribbing section. I am also knitting this in the round. Although I don’t mind knitting stranded back and forth, I’d just much rather knit in the round. As a result, I decreased the 8 stitches required for the buttonband and I’ve added in a total of 6 stitches for the steek. I’d rather knit the buttonband on afterwards anyway so that I get the buttonhole placement right. I never seem to get it even when I knit the buttonbands at the same time as the body.

I’m really looking forward to working on this project. I’m even more excited to see him wearing it. He looks so good in red. :)

Another pair off the needles. :)

Between the pattern and the yarn, I love these socks. The pattern is just enough to keep interest, but easy enough to do whist chatting (or in my case, gaming). And the yarn. Loved the yarn. The colour changes made it almost as nice as knitting with handspun. Almost. But the two together were a perfect match, and they’ll make fabulous bed socks.

Since I was making these as bed socks, I only did a 6.5” cuff (rather than my normal 7 to 7.5”), I shortened the foot by 1/4” and I made them snug fitting. I don’t like sleeping in tight socks, but I’ve found that after the first night that the socks loosen up quite a lot and a minor tweaking of the pattern by making them smaller seems to just work for me. The other options, for me, are ribbed or ankle bedsocks.

The details:

Pattern: Vihtori Socks for Men by Heli Heikkilä
Size: 43
Needle: US 1 – 2.25 mm
Yarn: Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball (a Christmas gift from Sophie)
Used: 0.66 skeins = 302.9 yards (277.0m)

Mods: Worked from the top down instead of toe up, over 64 sts.

I’ve casted on my next pair of sock, Vihtori, out of some Zauberball Crazy that was a gift to me from my friend Sophie. I am really enjoying this knit. Simple, yet effective. And of course the changing yarn colour is always fun, too.

I’ve modified these to be a top down sock, over 64 stitches. The pattern calls for 72 stitches for a size 44 foot. I wear a size 43/44, so I started with the recommended stitch count but once I was about 1” past the ribbing I tried it on and decided it was just too loose, even for bed socks (which is what I think I’ll be using them for… I love pretty bedsocks). After the last pair of socks I think I was being a bit over cautious and cast on the full 72. At least I remembered to try them on this time.

These socks have a story.

When I originally picked these socks, I was looking for something relatively simple, fast, and not overly complicated. The pattern looked perfect. In fact, I chose it because it is similar to Monkey, and I love my Monkey socks. I grabbed some deep stash yarn (pre-Y2K) in a simple colourway. I cast on and thought no more about it.

The pattern is a toe-up pattern that I did as a cuff-down sock and it is worked over 64 stitches. Similar to a hundred other 64(ish) stitch socks I’ve knit before. I knit. I turned the heel. I knit some more. I did my toe decreases. I kitchenered the toe. I stuck my hand inside the sock to tighten up my kitchener stitches only to find it difficult to get my hand in the sock.

I was shocked. I was also bloody annoyed that I’d knit a sock with a 7.5” leg and a 10.5” foot only to find out that not only could I not get it over my heel, but that I could barely get it on my foot. My sock mojo left. I set it aside, with the darning needle still on the end, and left it for my husband to try on when he got back from his business trip.

He returned. He tried on the sock. He couldn’t get it over his heel either. I was shocked. And now I was annoyed. In desperation, I called in my nearly 4 year old daughter to have her try on the sock. I couldn’t face reknitting the sock. I figured if it fit okay, I’d take out a couple of repeats and save it until it fit her. I put it on her. The leg fit. The bloody sock fit my pre-schooler!

I ripped the sock back, shortened the heelflap, reknit the foot in stocking stitch (my daughter commented about the ‘holes’ in the leg and said there shouldn’t be holes in the foot), knit to fit a size 27, duplicated the work in the second sock and called it a day.

My sock fit a 4 year old. Astonished doesn’t begin to describe my feelings. I’ve literally knit hundreds of socks and I was amazed at the sizing problems of this sock. To be completely fair, I do not think it was the pattern. Although the pattern is designed for a snug fit, this should not have happened. I think the yarn is mostly to blame and it wasn’t until I picked up and started knitting on another sock that I realised how thin this yarn was. Maybe it shrank in the stash. What I do know, is that I have several more balls of it in the stash and I’ll be very careful as to what I use it for. Unless, of course, I need more 4 year old sized socks.

The details:

Pattern: Up, Up and Away by Megan S. Wright
Size: 4 year old knee sock sized (size 27)
Needle: 2.25mm
Yarn: DGB Confetti Superwash

I started these socks a while ago for a challenge. They’ve sat on the needles of ages with barely more than their cast on row completed until I finally picked them up again last week.

I love the resulting socks, and I hope my husband does, too, as they are for him. He prefers a longer sock leg length and I adjusted the pattern accordingly by adding and extra 2 repeats (a total of 7 lengths of chart A or B) to bring the length to 8”.

The pattern was easy enough to memorize, at least for a sock with 3 separate charts running at once. I’d thoroughly memorised it by the time I reached the heel flap of the first sock. The socks have nice structure due to the cables and ribs, but still have a little bit of give. If I had been making them for me, I probably would have adjusted the pattern slightly by adding in an extra rib section to the back to accomodate my calves. They’ll be a perfect fit for my husband, though.

I also have to say that I love this sock yarn. Supersock has been a favourite of mine for years and I’m so glad I found it back in stock at Violet Green earlier this year. The colours are fabulous and the yarn wears like iron. I have favourite first-out-of-the-sock-drawer-after-wash-day socks I knit in this yarn in 2007 that are still going strong and barely show any wear except for some very minor felting in the heels. Given that I only wear handknit socks and I’m not gentle with them, that is really saying something.

The details, with Ravelry links:

• Pattern: Milo by Cookie A, from Sock Innovation
• Cast on: June 18, 2011
• Cast off: Oct 24, 2011
• Made for: Joey
• Size: 39, 8” leg
• Needle: 2.25 mm
• Yarn: Violet Green VG SuperSock
• Used: 378.4m
• Colorway: Garnet

The details:

• Cast on: September 10, 2011
• Cast off: October 16, 2011
• Pattern: Squall by Emily Ivey
• Size: 43
• Needle: 2.25mm DPNs
• Yarn: Woolcraft Superwash Sock Yarn
• 312m used (75g)
• Colorway: 365 Browns
• Yarn was a gift from Sophie from her SKIPnorth excursion.

Nice easy knit without it being a plain vanilla sock. Perfect for knitting in public or in company as it is basically a 2×2 rib with an repeating eyelet row. It was a great knit for my I felt my brain dribbling out my ears during the move.

The yarn is a basic 4ply wool/nylon workhorse sock yarn. I wasn’t sure if the mix of colours would work with this sock, but it turned out great as the yarn is made up of short colour repeats which produce a mottled effect.

I’m sure I’ll get a lot of use out of these socks.

52 pair plunge did you say? Yes. I’ve joined the 52 pair plunge. For those who aren’t familiar with this challenge, the idea is to knit 52 pairs of socks between June 1 and May 31st. Socks must have heels, toes and a cuff but can be any size (baby, toddler, or adult). There’s even a Ravelry group.

Nearly halfway through the month and we have a pair:

The pattern is called Cascading Leaves and it is a lovely. I really enjoyed knitting the pattern, although I wasn’t head over heels about the wool. The pattern is a cuff-down constructionwith an eight row lace repeat which is simple, intuitive and effective and I’m positive it would look amazing in a handdyed sock yarn.

The yarn I used was a Rico 4ply print (75% wool, 25% nylon) which is… functional. And cheap. They will make a lovely pair of socks, though. The yarn is very sturdy so they’ll be great for hiking and I won’t be overly concerned about getting them muddy, sweaty or dirty. This is actually a really good thing since I only wear handknit socks and training socks. (And if I could knit training socks, I probably would.)

And just to prove there is a pair:

Pattern: Cascading Leaves by Jeanie Townsend
Yarn: Rico 4ply print
Needles 2.25mm

And I even have enough left over to make a pair of toddler socks.

51 to go…

I have a little catch up to do… so let’s talk about the Pansi Socks. :)

The fibre was a handdyed merino that I had a few issues with whilst spinning, but I have to say I was so happy with the end result:

For whatever reason I just can’t get a decent photo of these socks, but I’m beyond chuffed with the socks themselves, although I think they’ll end up being bed socks in the long run. They are soft and squooshy and I love how they striped. They’ve sold me on making my own self striping sock yarn. :)

Speaking of spinning my own sock yarn, I’m planning to take this up as my Tour de Fleece project(s). There’s a Ravelry group for the Tour de Fleece and I’ve joined the Team Woolies. If you are interested in joining the challenge, do check out the group and join a team if you’d like.

Go Team Woolies! :)

I’d also like to thank everyone for the lovely comments on my Handspun Daisy cardigan. The mum loved it.

It’s finished and I’m delighted. I hope the mum to whom it will be gifted is just as happy. :)

I really like how this all came together, and I’m so happy that I decided to do this one seamlessly, it made such a difference in the finishing to only have to kitchener the hood and a couple stitches under each arm and weaving in a few ends.

In all, it didn’t take that long if I had been working on it religiously, but given the amount of spinning I’ve been doing that obviously wasn’t the case. It’s a great little pattern and I’d recommend it, especially if you aren’t sure that you have enough yarn for the hood. :)

Fibre: Superwash BFL custom dyed by Wildcraft
Yarn: 3ply worsted spun 14WPI, approximately heavy fingering weight
Pattern: Daisy by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee via Knitty (Ravel it!)
Size: Approximately 6 to 12 months (22.5” finished)
Needles: 3.5mm
Mods: made it seamless
My Ravelry project page for this item: Handspun Daisy

If I were to do it all over again, I’d love to do it on needles one size smaller, but I was so paranoid about running out of wool I didn’t. I got a lovely fabric with the 3.5mm which will drape nicely without being too airy.

I hope you like it Claire. :)

Okay, so not really. But it seemed fitting since I’m talking about Pansies and Daisies.

First, let me introduce you do the Pansi Socks:

I’m in love with them. I love how the yarn feels, I love how it feels knit up, and I love how it is striping. I’m so chuffed with these. They are just a basic 64 stitch top down sock with a heel flap, although I’m going to make a shorter leg than normal as I’m worried about running out of yarn. I can hear all the toe-up fanatics screaming from behind their monitors, but since my feet hate short row heels and I’ve never quite figured out how to do an extended heel flap on a toe up, although that’s mostly for lack of trying. I just want a quick pair of socks and I’m not wanting to mess with the math right now. Maybe some day I’ll figure it out.

Next up in the garden we have a Daisy in progress. I got up to the raglan decreases at the time of this photo, but I’m now just starting the hood. (I’ll admit so slight warps in the time-space continuum for sake decent light for a photo).

I even managed to find some buttons:

I had no idea it would be so hard to find some simple buttons that don’t look cheap. Okay, maybe I did but still haven’t admitted to it. Needless to say, I’m hoping to have Daisy off the needles today.

So, since Project Spectrum’s East theme breaks down into yellow, air, wood and spring, do you think Daisy would count for spring since it’s named after a spring flower?