FO Double Post: Socks!

I recently got bit by the sock-knitting bug. This was due in a large part to the Socks With Sarah KAL going on over at Knitting Sarah, and all of the social media pouring out of that effort. A lot of the knitting bloggers I follow are participating, and the flood of sock posts got my fingers itching to see what all the fuss was about. Today, I have not one but TWO finished sock projects to share with you, and I can firmly say that I "get it" - socks are a lot of fun!

A recent discovery of mine is that while my local library may not have a plethora of knitting books on its shelves, we belong to a consortium of local libraries and between all of them, there are quite a few interesting books available. I just returned Clara Parke's "The Knitters Book of Socks", which I thoroughly enjoyed, and currently have the following checked out:

• Vogue Knitting's "The Ultimate Sock Book"
• "Sock Innovation" by Cookie A
• "2-at-a-time Socks" by Melissa Morgan-Oakes
• "Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off" by, you guessed it, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee 
• "The Secret Life of a Knitter" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee 
• "Things I Learned from Knitting...whether I wanted to or not" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee 

You could say I'm a little bit obsessed. It's OK. Really.

Darjeeling

First up, we have Darjeeling by Cat Bordhi (from "The Knitter's Book of Socks").

These were knit in Malabrigo Sock, colorway "Lotus", and they are fabulous. I had so much fun knitting them, and as finished socks they are beautiful, comfortable, and warm. They are just the right height to peek out of my slouchy boots when worn over tights under a knee-length skirt. Bonus points for fitting in my shoes properly - I've heard that a lot of knitters have trouble wearing their hand-knit socks, as they are thicker than commercial socks and don't fit in their shoes. I happen to be a huge fan of really cushioned socks normally, so my shoes are quite accommodating! 

This was a fun and fairly simple pattern to knit, although it does run large. I have what I consider to be large feet (size 11 US Women's, often wide) but the Medium of this pattern is a tad loose on me (and yes, I did have correct gauge). A trip through the dryer tightened things up and thankfully didn't destroy the socks in the process, but if you are considering this pattern I'd suggest going down a size from what you think you need. 

It's hard to see in these pictures, but the heel is shaped by a triangular "expansion" on the underside of the foot, with a short-row heel & flap that gradually eats up the extra stitches. It's clever, but I think it might fit better on someone with a tall arch. Still, fun to work and not very difficult at all. 

The whole sock is done in a variety of patterns that only require simple knits and purls. It is worked from the toe-up, and I knit them 2-at-a-time. The result is beautiful and looks much more complicated than it is. Malabrigo's yarns are gorgeous, as always. This is only my second time knitting with them, and I have to say: if you have not knit with one of their yarns yet, you are missing out. 

These socks were completed in 8 days for my Ravellenics project. You can find my project page here.

Rye

Second, we have Rye by tincanknits, from "The Simple Collection". The Simple Collection is really neat - tincanknits put together a set of 8 basic patterns with full learn-to-knit instructions. The patterns start out easy, with a baby blanket and scarf, and progress up to an adult-sized sweater. So far I highly recommend this as a resource for anyone wanting to learn. Check it out here! But anyway, back to the socks:

These are worsted-weight "boot socks", as I would call them. I am wearing them RIGHT NOW and they are incredibly warm and cushy. I like them very much! These were knit in Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, left over from the sweater I made for Andrew this fall. For this pair, I started out with the Adult Medium size, but soon realized that would be way too big. Not a problem - since these are knit top-down, I decided to go for a slightly longer cuff and decrease as I went down to fit around my calf. 

Rye would be an excellent pattern for anyone learning to make socks for the first time. Heel construction is still confusing to me (I've now made 4 total pairs of socks in my lifetime), and the pattern does an excellent job of laying out exactly what you are doing. I had some math issues on the heel short-rows, but I'm convinced (for the moment) that it was my fault and not the pattern. Everything worked out fine in the end.

By the way, do you like my DIY sock blockers? I used a couple of cheap wire hangers and shaped them to look similar to other sock blockers I had seen. Unfortunately the wire coating flaked off when it was bent, so I had to cover portions of the blockers in tape so they wouldn't rust or catch on the knitting. As a result the tape kindof catches on the knitting. Oh well, I'm still glad they were free!

Why knit socks?

If you're still on the fence about knitting socks, I highly recommend just giving it a try. Each of the sock books I mentioned at the beginning of this post are very inspiring - we now have the luxury of knitting socks for fun, but this really was a necessity at one time, and the amount of engineering and history and expertise contained in the basic sock patterns we have today is marvelous to think about. Someone had to figure out for the first time how to turn a heel. Now we have oodles of methods to choose from, but they all had to be discovered. Grafting the toe shut (when knitting top-down socks) was revolutionary. Feet are oddly-shaped objects, and it's a fun engineering challenge to create something that fits them just right. Socks are also small, portable, and provide quick and easy ways to try out new stitch patterns. 

If you feel inspired, hop on over to the Friends of Knitting Sarah group on Ravelry and join in! 

Christmas Crafting FO's: Final Edition!

Hey everyone! It's been a while...but, it is now time for the final installment of my Christmas crafting Finished Object posts. First we had jewelry-making, then knitting, and now: sewing!

Balsam Fir Sachets

From a pile of scraps...

To neatly pinked edges...

To round, softly turned corners...

To a finished sachet!

Each of the women in my family got one of these along with their Christmas gift this year, as did a few of my closest friends. Last year, I wrote out some nice little tags along with each handmade item, explaining the materials used and how to care for it. I didn't get around to doing that this year, so I'll tell their story here:

The balsam fir inside these sachets came from Mount Washington, which Andrew and I drove up on our honeymoon. It was a crazy ride - I highly recommend it if you're ever in the area, as long as you're not squeamish about steep, narrow, winding roads with insane drop-offs to the side. I am quite fortunate, because Andrew is unafraid of any of that and is a very skilled driver. It was 80* F at sea level that day (it was the end of August), and I had no idea how truly cold it would be at the top. I think it might have been 50* or something like that.

Trying not to grimace because it's COLD!

We spent some time investigating all of the buildings at the summit - there's the old original structure from the mid 1800's, newer structures built in the 1900's, a weather observatory, a giant cafeteria (serving workers, hikers, and drivers alike), and of course a gift shop. I decided to purchase a large bag of Balsam Fir (which grows on the summit) to commemorate the trip, and kept it in storage for several years before finally settling on a usage for it.

This summer, Andrew and I headed to another classic New England locale, Acadia National Park. For some reason we've yet to edit our photos from the trip and post them online - we had some spectacular weather and really enjoyed our time there. The park produces guide maps for tourists, highlighting places of note to visit. I was surprised to see a few of craft/knitting shops on their list! Andrew was very accommodating and we trekked out to see two of them. Unfortunately only 1 was open when we stopped by. I was really sad about the closed one - it was a knitting / CANDY shop, like real old-fashioned penny-candy in a jar Candy Shoppe. (The name is Bee's Inc; please do visit and let me know how it is if you're ever in the area!) We were able to stop in to a small quilting & knitting shop on the quiet side of the island. Google doesn't list it, but the name is "Quilt'n'Fabric" and it's located on Seal Cove Road in Southwest Harbor.

When I visit independent craft supply stores, I like to ask if they have anything exclusive to that location - locally dyed or spun yarn, custom fabrics, etc. The proprietor happily showed me a few things, and I settled on a yard of "Blueberries My Way Too" fabric, custom designed & printed in Maine by Jolene Harmon. Finally I had all the supplies I needed to produce something special.

Assembling these was a very simple process. I cut out rectangles of fabric and muslin, thinking that a double layer would a) preserve the whiteness of the background and b) keep the fir needles from poking out. I then folded them along one side and sewed around, leaving an opening to stuff them. A small funnel and the knitting needle in this picture were instrumental in getting the fir inside - if you attempt to make any similar sachets, I recommend leaving more than a 1" opening. I experimented with using the sewing machine to close the gap at the end, but I didn't like the result so I opted to hand-stitch instead. All in all I made 10 of these, and it only used half of my stuffing and fabric. 

Leather Needle-Book

Last but certainly not least, I made a leather monogrammed needle-book for my sister-in-law. She is a veritable cross-stitching fiend (I mean that endearingly, of course!) and does some really beautiful work. I thought she should have some beautiful tools to go with it!

I used a bit of leather leftover from my sister's moccasin-making phase, and painted a T on the front using a mixture of black fabric paint and bronze Martha Stewart glaze. It's a little sparkly, but not too shiny.

Inside, there is one piece of black wool felt, cut to be just smaller than the cover. Embroidery needles can be stored by poking them through the felt. The wool is nice and thick and grippy, so things should stay secure. I used my XActo knife to poke holes in the leather, and sewed the felt to the cover like an old-school book binding. Unfortunately it was pretty dark when I took these pictures, and my photos of the interior didn't turn out so well...you can imagine what it looks like :-)

For the closure, I decided to try cutting a loop of leather contiguously with the back cover, just large enough to fit over the button. It looks nice and functions well, but I'm a little nervous that it will wear out in time. If it ever does, I can easily cut it off and run a loop of cording through the back cover instead. I was especially pleased with the owl button I found - I think it adds just the right touch.

Fin

That's it! I had a lot of fun this year trying to come up with some simpler homemade gifts, and I'm very happy with the outcome. It was good to have a balance between knitted, sewed, and other kinds of projects to work on throughout the fall and winter. 

Blogging thoughts

I debated apologizing for the lack of posts recently. I haven't really set a posting schedule, but I started out strong with the Wednesday and Friday posts at first, and I'm very good at pressuring myself even if there is no outward pressure to be had. At this stage, I think it's important for me to keep writing, and disregard the 'featured' days. One bad tendency I'm trying to overcome is the feeling that if I want a post to go live on Wednesday, that means I can write it on Wednesday. That just doesn't work. Sometimes it takes me quite a while to pull together a whole post, what with deciding what I want to say, getting photos arranged, pulling together links, formatting, etc, and if I really want a post to go live on a certain day, I need to treat it like an assignment and begin the work before the posting date. On the other hand, I often over-think things and make posts take longer than they need. For instance last Wednesday's post was very quick to write, and I was pretty happy with the story I was able to tell. 

This morning I woke up early, bursting with post ideas - so I took a proactive step and wrote them all down. Hopefully I can figure out some balance - this is pretty new for me, after all! If you're reading this, thanks for sticking with me, and I hope you can fit in some time to craft this weekend.

--Amanda

Christmas Crafting FOs, Pt 2

Hello again! As a change of pace, I'm going to share some finished objects with you on a day that is NOT Friday. I think I want to move away from doing too many day-of-the-week scheduled posts - better to write when I have something to say, and publish when its done.

On this lovely weekend, we are experiencing the lowest temperatures I've ever felt as part of the latest blizzard. It was 0* F on Thursday night. NO DEGREES. Last night (Friday), the low dipped to -1* F. I'm glad I have lots of wooly knitwear to keep me warm!

Last Friday I shared the jewelry-making Christmas crafts I gifted this year. Today, it's time to share the knits. Last year I attempted to knit something for each member of my family (counting in-laws), and closest friends. I got close but ran out of steam, so a few people got switched to sewn gifts instead to give my hands a rest. So this year, trying to keep things much lower key, I thought I'd knit just for those who didn't get something knitted last year. Now, I can be sure that all of my loved ones have a handknit of some kind to snuggle up with on cold days like these. Here they are!

Brambles Beret

Check out that stitch definition!

This is the Brambles Beret, from Knitty Deep Fall 2010 (Funny, I just realized that the first sweater I knit came from the same issue. I guess it was a good one!), knit for my lovely mother-in-law. Among other things, she is the only one on that side of the family who doesn't make fun of my knitting, at all, even in jest. Earlier in the year she had hinted that she didn't have any hats, so if I ever felt like knitting one, she would love it. I thought she was deserving of a really special hat. I hope she is able to put it to good use!

This was fun and quick to knit. I decided to splurge and bought some Malabrigo Rios (color "Bobby Blue"), and it is every bit as delicious as people say it is. The dye job is spectacular - absolutely no pooling, a true kettle-dye effect. Beautiful! The Rios base is quite squishy, as well, which made it a joy to knit with. I would LOVE to make a whole sweater out of this, but I think the price tag might kill me. If you have any accessories or baby patterns in you queue, I highly recommend this yarn. Did I mention it's machine washable?

Full details on my project page here.

Felicity Mitts take #3

There is a funny story behind these mitts. Felicity is a free pattern, and I made a pair for myself out of some Cascade Heritage Silk Paints while on a business trip (great travel knitting project). The pattern as written is lacy and feminine:

Well, I finished my pair, and wore them over to my parent's house. My brother Max (he's in high school) looked at them, asked if he could try them on, and, being a Really Cool Guy, began mocking "oooohh, so pretty!" and flouncing around the room. At least, that's what he intended to do. But once he got one on his hand, he suddenly turned serious and said "oh - these are actually really nice. These would be so useful! I like that my fingers are free and they're still warm! Could you make me some?" Total change of tune. So I took out the lace, added a colorwork pattern, and made him a pair for his birthday.

My brother loves them. Success! But then, my husband's youngest brother @theActualDaleFishman, guest blogger extraordinaire, saw these mitts, and started not-quite-hinting that he wanted some too. "Hey, Amanda, you know those gloves you made for Max...well, for Christmas...if you wanted to make me some...*wink wink*..." This started in May and continued for the whole rest of the year. Not all that subtle. So of course I had to make him some, and they were a huge hit as well. I don't think he's taken them off since Christmas.

Now the only question is, who's next?

Yak Hat

My husband has an unusual fascination with various odd and interesting creatures: blue whales, turkeys, cephalopods, llamas & alpacas... he gets the propensity for it it from his father. My father-in-law's favorite creature is the beaver: nature's engineer. To help explain the level of obsession, here's a photo of part of Al's beaver collection:

Don't forget the tastefully arranged nature scene, including a real piece of beaver-chewed wood!

Here's MMB (Micro-Muffiny Beaver) modeling my and Andrew's wedding bands, which Al made for us to match my engagement ring:

Some people like to say that they obsess over something, but these two take things seriously.

Anyway, Andrew and his dad started getting into yaks some time this year. I'm not sure where it started, but it turned into a Really Big Deal. Like, "I wonder if we could actually own a yak and keep it in our yard?" (asked in all seriousness by both of them). Apparently they make great companion animals, if you start them young. They're loyal and friendly, and can even be good with children. Plus, how cool would it be to be able to say "Yeah, I have a pet Yak"? I got to go to Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool festival this year, saw Bijou Basin Ranch - purveyors of fine Tibetan Yak products - on their vendor list, and put two and two together: I had to make my father-in-law a yak hat. So I snagged some Tibetan Dream (85% yak down, 15% nylon for strength) at the festival and got to work.

I couldn't find any good-looking hat patterns for this weight of yarn that weren't girly or weird, so I made one up. The brim is worked side-to-side in a smocked pattern, then grafted shut, and stitches are picked up from the brim to make the crown. It is pleasantly smooshy and nice and thick around the ears. The yak yarn knitted and blocked quite nicely, but the real treat was when I put it on for the first time. This stuff is WARM. It had better be, if it keeps yaks insulated against Tibetan winters!

Here's my father-in-law, braving our single-digit temperatures yesterday morning:

I laugh at the cold!

Raveled here.

Riconada Mitts

Finally, I knew I wanted to knit for my other brother-in-law, Charlie. This presented a bit of a challenge, because while he does hunt and do all sorts of outdoorsy things, he is also an accountant and a bit of a snappy dresser. I like versatility, so I wanted to find something I could make that would fit in both worlds. I also had more yak yarn left over from the hat, and wanted to use it for him. Thankfully, one of the very few patterns in the Ravelry database that actually call for Tibetan Dream was perfect for the job: the Riconada Mitts.

(Sorry the photo is so high-contrast; I'm still getting the hang of my camera & editing tools). I'm quite happy with how these turned out! They are very warm, and I think they do walk the line between classy and utilitarian/useful. The combination of yak and merino/silk is very warm, and (Bonus!) the colors make these look like Creepers from Minecraft. Win-win.

Raveled here.

Wrapping Up

Have a great weekend, everyone! That's all for today. I still have a few more Christmas FOs to post, so stay tuned, and watch out, they may not be on Fridays anymore. 

--Amanda