Tres Chic Veronique

Did I ever tell you about the awesome Pride Marigold socks? Oh, yes. Yes, I did. In freaking February. Well, they've been done since April... But their insane brightness saturates my camera in a hideous way.

Deets:

• Pam's pattern.
• Regia Fun Nation yarn (which I used previously).
• Size 1 Addis, magic loop.

There is further evidence of my vanishing knitting mojo:

Exhibit A: The Lying Gauge Swatch.
I bought some Habu Shosenshi paper yarn about 3-4 years ago, with no specific project in mind. I thought it had an amazing texture, ok? I had no idea what to make with it until I saw the Chinese Style Pullover from Setsuko Torii's Habu book. *drool* Instead of wasting my newly purchased yarn on a swatch, I decided to swatch with the older yarn. It turns out that the new batch of yarn is *much* thinner than the older batch. I only figured this out when I had knit the entire front (or back, they're the same).

Swatch on the right, completed front on the left.

Exhibit B: Fiddly Finishing Failure.
The Flutter Sleeve cardi needs one button band (out of 2) and some finishing on one sleeve. Great pattern, meet impatient knitter.

Labels: flutter sleeve, pride marigold, socks

Last year, I joined Wendy's Knit From Your Stash 2007 endeavor. I think I did well, mostly thanks to the exceptions to the no-buying-yarn rule (phew!). For example, you were allowed to buy yarn if the project was a gift, and you were allowed to purchase unlimited amounts of sock yarn. Also, Knit From Your Stash only lasted from January until September 30th, 2007. Just in time for Rhinebeck! I used my Get Out of Jail Free card to purchase 20 balls of lovely olive colored Rowan's All Seasons Cotton from Yai Ann, and then completely broke down at Habu and made unallowed purchases, but, give me break, that was on August 21st!

Here is a tally of what I knit in 2007 and a look at where the yarn came from:

• 6 baby items:
  

-2 group blankets with new yarn (allowed!)
-3 baby sweaters: EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket *stash yarn*, EZ's February sweater *stash yarn* and EZ's Baby Bog (new yarn, allowed).
- 1 baby hat, *stash yarn*

• 2 lace shawls: (Shetland Triangle and the Blumengruss shawl) both with *stash yarn*
• 4 pairs of socks: Embossed Leaves socks with *stash yarn*, the other 3 (stockinette knee highs, Hederas and Socks for Veronik) with new yarn, but that's allowed!
• 2 cardigans: Agnes with a gift certificate I received from the Spiders for my birthday (allowed!) and VK's Ruffled Jacket made with new yarn purchased 10 days before the end of Knit From Your Stash...
  
• 1 scarf: new yarn, but was a gift (and my own design), so it was allowed.
  
• 4 sewn dresses: all new fabric, but there were no rules about buying fabric, so there!
  

I haven't really made any resolutions for 2008, and look what happened:
Project # 1: Charade socks for my boyfriend, using Yarntini's Chocolatini colorway (purchased from the Plucky Knitter)



Project #2: A scarf for me, using Fable HandKnits's delicious baby alpaca (left over from my Sensual Knits 2 project) and a random mohair/silk blend from the stash (purchased at Yarnivore way back when!). My own design, using the two color star stitch. Unblocked and looks like crap here...


Project #3: Marigold socks, by Pamela of FlintKnits, using Vesper Sock yarn in Strange Little Mama (purchased for me by Lisa, who selflessly hit the reload button on the Vesper Etsy site until this colorway came up). Since Pamela's lace pattern is worked over 7 rows and the Vesper stripes are 5 rows, I had to fudge a little.


I made a garter heel, inspired by Gleek. She used this heel quite some time ago (October 2006!), but I had it squirreled away in my mind and knew I would use it eventually. Especially since the heels of my other pair of Vesper socks wore right through. I think the garter heel will be sturdier.

Labels: knit from your stash, socks

One of my summer subway/lunchtime knitting projects has been Hedera socks, using the second installment of the Yarntini Sock Club, a variegated sock yarn made of 50% tencel and 50% superwash wool in the colorway Mint Mojito. This blend was just the thing for summer knitting. These socks have been completed for a little while, but had been waiting for the perfect photo op: an apple orchard near Rhinebeck!
I chose the Hedera pattern after drooling over Jessica's nearly identical socks: they are lacey, but there's only 2 lace rows, and they are easily memorizable (full disclosure: I still screwed them up here and there and had to rip back. *sigh*).

I used size 1 Crystal Palace needles, the only dpns that don't break. Seriously, I've broken all the wood dpns I've ever used, but bamboo rocks! And I'm afraid that with metal dpns, the needles would just glide out and be scattered all over the subway. Somehow, somewhere, I got tired of magic loop...


Next up: a completed Ruffled Jacket, with matching armwarmers (because the elbow-length sleeves left my forearms cold).

Labels: socks, Yarntini

Although I feel like I'm more of a sweater or big project knitter, but I cannot resist the call of self-striping sock yarn...
I signed up (just in time!) for the Yarntini sock club, and drooled over the first shipment. As you might recall, I tried several stitch patterns until I finally came to my senses and decided to knit all stockinette.

(How do you like my new Ikea lockers?)

Specs:
Yarn: Yarntini self-striping yarn in Pure Breeze.
Needles: Addi size 1 (2.5 mm), 40" length, magic loop.
Pattern: As I was winding the yarn, I counted the number of white stripes: 28 total. Therefore, I planned on knitting 14 white stripes per sock, and to work them toe up to use this gorgeous yarn to the last drop. (Kaitlyn thinks I'm crazy, but really, it was the thing to do, no?).
I started off with a figure 8 cast-on. I love this cast-on: it's completely invisible and so neat! --When Grumperina raved on her blog about Judy's magic cast-on, I became very curious about this cast-on to beat all cast-ons. Not to mention jealous that someone knew a cast-on that was better than the one I knew. Turns out that they are one and the same! *Phew*--
Started with 16 st (8 on each side), increased to 54 for the foot. Misocrafty heel (and got NO HOLES for the first time ever). Once I got to the leg, I realized I had to fit in some increases to accommodate calves. So I threw in 2 increases at each dark blue stripe, for a total of 10 st increased.
I finished off with k1p1 ribbing, and bound off with a tubular bind off. Although it's the best bind-off for socks, it's quite tedious...
Another thing that's quite tedious? (You know this already). Taking pictures of your own legs. Here was my first attempt:


As soon as I was done with one pair of Yarntini socks, I only wanted to do one thing: make another pair! Good thing that I received the second Yarntini sock club installment, a variegated merino/tencel blend in "Mojito Mint". I decided that this was a perfect summer sock yarn, and that I needed an open, airy sock pattern. Hedera!
Here's what I have so far:

Why, yes, I *do* have a fire escape in my new apartment. Why do you ask?

Labels: socks, Yarntini

I have worn my Vesper Watermelon socks exactly 3 times. *sigh*
I bought this yarn a while ago, and I believe that Ms. Vesper is now using a different base yarn. It's hard to tell from her shop, because she is perpetually sold out!

Tomorrow, you will have GOOD pink and green news!

**Edited to add: I could have avoided this problem if I'd worn open back clogs, I suppose. But no, I wore these cute flats. Lesson learned**

Labels: socks