vanessarama.net

May I present… Sarek!

Pattern: S(p)ocks, by Wendy Johnson. Purchased from The Loopy Ewe.
Yarn: Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock Multi, in the ‘Irving Park’ colourway
Modifications: Turkish cast-on, gusset heel

I love these! I called them Sarek, because the red colours are so evocative of strong emotions - passion, anger - and reminded me of the episode of TNG where Sarek goes all emotional overload and has to mind-meld with Picard. The pattern and yarn melded well for this The pattern was a lot of fun to knit, too.

Here’s my first pair for the SSoS Challenge!

I have named them Jitterbugging at Dusk. They’re the On Your Toes socks from Interweave Knits Summer 2007, done in Colinette Jitterbug (’Dusk’ colourway) on 2.5 Addi circulars. I was amazed at how few stitches I needed with this yarn; normally I cast on 64 or 66 stitches for a 2.5mm needle, but I easily went down to 56 sts for these socks. It helps that the pattern is decently stretchy, of course. I modified the pattern to use Wendy Johnson’s gusset heel. I was also pleasantly surprised by the fact that I got a decently long cuff, despite the short yardage on Jitterbug. Would knit again

(Jitterbug reminds me very much of Socks that Rock Mediumweight - same kind of weight, texture, roundness of strand, twist and springiness).

I am now hard at work on two pairs, one in Lorna’s Laces and one in Stone Barn Fibers. I hope to get pics of these up soon!

I’m back from the NT, and back at hard work already. We had a wonderful time! I intended to get Rohan to take a photo of me working on a sock at Uluru, just so I could caption it “Sock at the Rock”, but it was so hot out there I couldn’t bear to knit!

In non-travel news, there are a few family and health issues happening, so a bit of strain. I have only one finished object to report:

I have christened these socks ‘Blackeyes’, after the protagonist in the Dennis Potter miniseries, because they are very beautiful, and also because they are black and feature eyelets. The yarn is Smooshy Sock Yarn by Dream in Color, in the colourway ‘Black Parade’. This is a very subtle and delightful colourway. It’s black, but several shades of black; it ranges through charcoal, plain black, a very dark brownish black and a dark bluish-greenish-black. I think this would be a good colour for men, and for office wear. The pattern is Wendy Johnson’s Eyelet Rib Toe-Up Socks, available on the Loopy Ewe’s blog here (scroll down a bit). I modified it with Wendy’s gusset heel, rather than a heel flap.

More to show for the trip, and more knitting, soon, I hope.

Oh, and what do you do when you get no satisfaction from an indie dyer and seller? I ordered some hand-dyed sock yarn from The Knitting Ninja in early August; the site says to allow 1-2 weeks plus delivery time, but she is in Australia, so it shouldn’t take this long. I’ve tried to contact her via the contact form on her site and also via Ravelry, but had no reply - and from what I can see on a couple of other blogs and on Ravelry, I’m not the only one. Someone ordered theirs in June and they, and Paypal, both had no response. I don’t want to be a big meanie because it’s obvious something is going on there - maybe she’s sick, or away - but if so, there should be some notice on the website about it, because other people are also going to be ordering yarn and getting nothing for their moolah. And I just want the pretty, pretty yarn!

I’ve been slack, haven’t I? In my defense, I’ve been very busy at work. It’s good busy - I’m working on some stuff that’s very exciting - but it’s busy, and when I get home I don’t feel much like sitting in front of a computer any more. There have been various family and health related things happening, too.

The good news is that as of yesterday, I’m on leave. We’re going to the Northern Territory for ten days. The bad news is that 48 hours before I step on the plane, I’ve come down with a nasty cough and overall crappiness. This often happens when I get a holiday, most notably causing me to miss Bath in its entirety while we were in the UK. Bah, I say! I plan to spend the next few days taking it easy and getting lots of sleep, hopefully to kill the evil little bacterial bastards before the trip begins.

So, knitting. I have added to my stash a little, with orders from the Loopy Ewe. I’ve also tried to use the stash a bit.

Here’s the Babette blanket I’ve been making from leftovers, so far:

And again:

This is Babette Grand-mere. Made from 12-ply scraps, she’s the grandmother; there will be an 8-ply and a sock yarn version as well. Good mindless crochet.

Here are the latest actual knitting projects…

Pattern: Falling Leaves from Knitty
Yarn: Anne by Schaefer, colourway ‘Scottish Thistle’
Needles: Two 2mm circulars
Modifications: used Wendy’s no-pick-up gusset heel.
I love the way the colour variations in this yarn are distinct yet subtle. It doesn’t detract from the pattern at all.

Next up:

Pattern: Generic stocking stitch toe-up over 64 stitches
Yarn: Regia Bamboo
Needles: Two 2.5mm circulars

You will notice that these are very long, plain socks. I am hoping they’ll be good to wear under my hiking boots. Again I used Wendy’s heel.

And finally…

Emily has named these ‘Eviscerated Seaweed’, which kind of suits them

Pattern: Broad Spiral Ribbing from Charlene Schurch’s More Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: Wollmeise Sockenwolle, in ‘Suzanne’ colourway
Needles: Two 2.25mm circulars

Yarn and pattern work well together.

Again, I used Wendy’s heel. I’ve found that it really works the best of all for my high instep, and I intend to use it as much as possible from now on.

And last but not least, the Horcrux socks!

Pattern: Horcrux Socks by Susan Lawrence, from the Six Sox Knitalong on Yahoo
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome in ‘River Run’ (from the Loopy Ewe)
Needles: Two 2.5mm circulars

This was a great, fun, easy pattern. The Sockittome yarn is very stretchy and the socks seemed to knit up really fast - I christened them ‘Greased Lightning’ because of that, and because of the lightning bolt. Here’s an in-progress shot showing the lightning bolt pattern:

I just love them The only problem is the heel - a horseshoe heel, it would be good for narrow heels but not as good for my wide heels. Ah well. I love them anyway

Well, I’m off to bed to sip Lemsip and try to get better before I have to go on holiday. Wish me luck!

She was a sock knitter
Double pointer, yeah
It took me soooo long to cast off, but I cast off…

Sorry. Just me being silly.

This week I finished my first pair of socks in Trekking, which I love. Here is the flaccid sock:

And here they are with feet in them!

The pattern was the Simple Trekking Sock, with one variation; I didn’t do the fancy broken rib at the toes. I did discover that I like Trekking XXL, very much. The subtle colour variations are magic, the yarn is just fine enough without being too thin, and it should prove hardwearing with the nylon addition. The one thing I don’t like about it is that if you drop a stitch, it’s difficult to pick up without splitting the yarn; but I can live with that. I made these with 2.25mm needles, dropping down to 2mm Addis when I finished the gusset shaping.
I’m still trying to work out the perfect socks for me. I have thick calves and ankles and a very high instep, but my feet aren’t long in proportion with that. I have found that I need a very elastic cast-on with a lot of cuff stitches, and that I need a fairly roomy gusset and instep, but I can decrease stitches and/or needle size for the rest of the foot. So far a 72-stitch cast-on on 2.25s seems ample for the cuff and leg; I think I may have to decrease it down to perhaps 68 or fewer on the foot. Next time I’ll try that, and I’m sure that I will eventually work out my Perfect Socks. In the meantime, these are pretty damn close. There’s plenty of yarn left, too; I could have made the legs longer, and next time I will.

Last week I also received my first Etsy purchase, from the Etsy store of White Willow. It’s a sock yarn called Avalon, and here’s a picture:

It’s plums and purples and a clear cobalt blue, lovely. And it came with a wee stitch marker attached to the label!

Isn’t that lovely? I’m on the lookout for other Etsy sellers who ship sock yarn to Australia - or who are actually located here. I have completely forgotten the idea of knitting from the stash

Baby Cable Rib, to be exact.

I really wish I could work out how to take a nice photo of socks on my own feet. These look a hundred times better in person than they do in the picture!

Here’s a close-up of the baby cables:

I’m very happy with them.

Yarn: 4 ply Merino Cashmere Sock from The Knittery, in ‘Moonlight’. This is a wonderful smooth soft yarn, very nice indeed on the foot.

Pattern: Baby Cable Rib from Charlene Schurch’s Sensational Knitted Socks, with 2.5mm Addi Turbos.

I love them. I really love them.