Knitting: Rock-em Sock-em

Well, I'm back on a kick of wanting to knit socks.  I guess a week of 40° temperatures and cold feet will do that to a person.  So now not only am I working on a Bridgewater shawl (collectively decided by knitters on Ravelry to be one of the more difficult Jared Flood patterns) I have decided to try and create my own toe-up version of the Spot Check Socks.  They are colorwork, so they are very toasty with the double strands running behind every row.

This is KnitPick's Stroll yarn (of which I have an entire tub FULL of just that... sock yarn) in Canopy (green) and Cartoons.  When the Cartoons strand hits a green section, it gets a little difficult to tell which strand is which.  There is also more tonal variations in the canopy than I'd like.  The line of the single main (toe and heel) color that's supposed to run up the sides?  You can barely tell it's there because the "solid" green is a different shade every single round.  But they are turning out rather striking despite all that, and it makes it more fun to work on to see that they really will be attractive in the end, despite all the frustrating bits.  I started these on Saturday, and I'm already close to starting the heel.  For being a colorwork item, these socks really zoom along.

In fact I haven't touched the Bridgewater since starting these socks, and didn't think to take a picture of it while I had my camera out, so you can tell I'm enthused.  :D

Knitting: Sock Craze 2010

The reason for my latest sock-knitting frenzy is no secret... I have a *lot* of sock yarn.  It seems I love the idea of knitting socks, but I was always so slow at it.  I found out, however, if I lay off the frou-frou sock patterns with the tons of lace, cables, and whatnot, I can actually finish a pair in about five days.

That's actually quite a difference.

So, it's been plain-jane sock knitting as of late.  I get to use all of those pretty yarns I just HAD to buy, and get functional, toasty socks in the bargain.  And seriously, I find most fancy sock patterns to produce lumpy socks with a lot of drafty holes in them, especially when it comes to heels.

Of course, I could always use the sock yarn on my rigid-heddle loom, but unfortunately I usually only buy enough for a pair of socks, and Knit Picks never keeps a color around long enough for me to buy more if I decide I need to.  Yeah, I'm a little frustrated by that.  It would be interesting to see how the Stroll Watermelon colorway would weave up in a shawl or scarf though.  As you can see by my newest sock project, the color repeats are extremely short.  I imagine that would weave up into a kind of crazy pink and green camouflage.

Or how it would look with Watermelon as the warp, and the Carnation pink as the weft?  Crap, now I want to hurry up and finish my stole weaving project in Shimmer Sherry just to try it out.  Which means buying more yarn.  Sigh.

Knitting: Tempest fever

As I noted previously, I started the Tempest cardigan for my daughter.  Since it's not a portable project (and I had my final-for-a-while dentist appointment last week) I have also started a pair of socks in the same colorway as the solid color of her sweater.  I also started another Tempest for myself, in Knit Picks "Royalty" stroll and Twisted's Valkyrie colorways.  Yeah, I'm going to look like a serious Vikings fan, but I'm okay with that.

I got the knitting books I was pining after.  The Skinny Yarns book was not quite what I was looking for, but it *is* inspirational.  The Two-at-a-time Socks book was okay, but every pattern seemed dependent on a specific yarn to get the desired look.  What I like in knitting books is a variety of patterns in their specified genre which are not yarn-dependent... I don't want to track down your ultra-expensive yarn in X colorway.  What I want is to be able to use my stash, whatever's in it, and still have the item come out looking passably attractive and at least similar to the finished product pictured in the book.  While I may use a modest amount of silk in my projects, there's no way I'm blowing money on cashmere, yak, or quivuit.  I don't care how skinny it is or how well it drapes.... it's too expensive and too hot for Texas.

What I'd really like to see... a book for using lace-weight yarn on something that isn't a shawl, and isn't terribly lacy.  Anyone have suggestions?

Knitting: Go Speed Racer

Holy guacamole, I actually started and finished a pair of knee-high socks since last week... I guess the title of world's slowest sock knitter needs to move on, eh? I even made them longer than usual.

I've also just cast on a pair of mittens from the book "Magnificent Mittens and Socks" I love this book and hate this book at the same time. One the one hand, it's full of interesting-looking mittens and socks. On the other hand, it has that annoying habit of saying "For this mitten, work the steps as for Mitten Y" and then when you get to the generic instructions for Mitten Y, the first step reads "Do this mitten as you would for mitten Z" I mean, is it a flip book, or a pattern book? Here's an idea... put the directions on every freakin' pattern. Would it kill you to put an inset box in the corner of that full-page color photo of the finished product?

Actually, the instructions aren't that complex.  HOWEVER, had I known that what I was reading at the front of the book was never to be repeated again, I would have paid attention more.  The patterns are cute, and once you actually try to put together a mitten, the instructions are easyish to follow.  The problem is the flipping to three different pages to find out the steps.  Fortunately it seems like you only need to do it once, and it's easy to remember how for the second and subsequent mittens, and all you need is the chart.