Red Kathleen

I've had this hat (called Kathleen) in my queue for a while.  I loved the cables and the giant tall ribbing and the funky little slouch.  When I started thinking about fall/winter knits, a few months ago, I grabbed a lovely fluffy ball of red wool from the shelf and began this one.

I knit practically the whole thing at the recommended gauge, with my hands getting stiff from all the tight cabling, before I faced the fact that it really wasn't going to fit my big head.  I ripped it out, back to the end of the ribbing, and went up a couple of needle sizes to reknit it.  This time my hands didn't get as stiff, and I found that it fit better.

Although I do enjoy the look of it as a slouchy chic hat, this week it's been bloody cold, here, and I found that if I fold the brim double, it still looks cute, in a different, Steve Zissou sort of way, but will also keep my ears warmer.

Win.

Manly Socks

Sometimes it's hard to find a good manly pattern that will please both the man in your life as well as your inner desire to knit something lovely and amazing.  When I saw this pattern, charmingly called John Huston, the Tarnished Hero (ravelry page) I knew it was a winner on both fronts.

The leg of the sock has a great chevron pattern, made of traveling twisted stitches, that is reminiscent of a military chevron in style, and then that chevron splits in half to continue down the foot.  In addition, the central part of the leg and foot is a nice stretchy 2x2 rib, which will ensure that the finished sock will snugly adjust to fit virtually any width of foot.

I knit them out of soft and strong Stroll sock yarn from Knit Picks, in a deep dark brown called Fedora.  It's a bit darker than the photos look, more of an espresso.

Knitting these socks was a bit of a challenge - the twisted stitches were traveling on every round, with no rest rounds, for example, and it took a while to get the gist of the pattern so I could knit it without the charts to back me up.  The end result is a really great sock, though, and hopefully will be appreciated by the recipient.

Crazy Hat Lady

A while back, I knit a hat for my HLM (which never got a photo on the blog since he is shy of cameras) based on the hat that Opie wears on tv's Sons of Anarchy.  He loves it and wears it a lot.

Recently, one of my friends, who is quickly progressing through the basics of knitting, decided she wanted to knit herself a hat in that style.  We decided to do a hat knitalong, and both bought yarn and measured our heads and got to work.

The end result is a really simple slouchy hat that I love.  Sorry about the crazy eyes.

After finishing that one, I had the hat bug, and pulled out some yarn and a pattern that I picked up at the knitting store in Jasper on our girls' vacation.  A simple pattern by Wooly Wormhead, it knit up in a couple of days.  I added a half-inch to the length, and am I glad I did - it's still not really as long as I'd wish.  It's also a bit snug and wants to pull up, so it might be a donation hat, rather than one I keep.  The design uses a reverse-stockingette background with a travelling twisted knit stitch across it.  If I knit it again, I'd probably do a YO & SSK combo, instead, which would be easier on the hands and would give more-or-less the same effect.  It would also have more stretch, so it might even stay on my head a bit better.

Vine Lattice Socks

It won't look like anything new, since I've made several posts about these socks, previously, but I just wanted to show off the finished product (and wear them, as an extra bonus) to prove that I eventually finished them.

I am still in the process of writing up the pattern -- it's hard to find the time, when I want to spend my time knitting, not writing about it. Once it's ready, I'll show that off, too.

Have a happy Friday!

The Second Sock

It's been a while since I've dedicated any time to the second pair of socks I designed. The first one languished for a while at the end of the leg, then for a while longer somewhere past the gusset. This weekend I released it from limbo and finished off the toe and cast on the second sock. At the coffeehouse last night, I picked them up where this photo leaves off, and got halfway through the leg (did it really take four hours to do one repeat of the pattern? Yikes.)

I have managed, so far, to distract myself from starting a new pair of socks by working on these ones, but I don't know how long I can keep it up. I think my brain knows I'm up to something. I do want to finish them, though, and get the pattern out there into the world, since I've just ordered yarn for my next design, which will be more of a departure.

Woodruff Mittens

I have a pair of mittens that I have been wearing every day in winter for a few years now. They are stranded sportweight alpaca, knitted in this Norwegian mitten pattern that I copied once from the real deal. Unfortunately a few weeks ago, these mittens developed a little hole at the end of one of my fingers. I could darn them, but frankly, it's been a few years and I'm ready for a little change. By "little", I mean that I am actually going to knit the same mittens in the same yarn but with different colours. I know, I'm off the rails this time. Before I take on that project, though, I wanted a quick pair of worsted weight wool mittens to keep my exposed finger warm for the time it takes to knit another pair of stranded alpaca ones. I mean, with the rate I am being distracted by casting on for shiny new projects, it might be a while before they're finished.


A couple of weeks ago at our coffee shop knit night, I took some pink worsted weight and started a free pattern from Ravelry. Two or three inches after the cuff I decided that they weren't the right ones, and I frogged them back completely to try something else. Like everyone else, I have been watching Jared Flood's blog to watch the pretty photos of his latest patterns in his beautiful new yarn. I decided to give his Woodruff mittens a whirl, with the pink Ella Rae Classic that I had selected from my stash. A week later, I was very happily wearing them. The only thing I changed was to add a couple more purl welts to the wrist, to make it a bit longer, safely tucked into my coat.


I love the look of the bobbles and twisted stitch cables, and the moss stitch palm and thumb are tactile and comfortable. The weather has been mild and they have been warm enough, but certainly nothing compared to the stranded alpaca mitts I'm used to. I'll have to get to those, right after I finish my shawl... and that cardigan... and the other cardigan... and those socks... oh, and the other socks... Yoiks, I'd better get to it.

Twisty Knitting

Amongst my various projects, I have been continuing to work on my second pair of twisted stitch socks. I think we can all agree that the new yarn is showing the stitch pattern much more clearly, and I can vouch for it being way less splitty for this type of knitting. I am just up to the heel flap on the first sock, which means things are about to get easier -- no twisty stitches on the heel flap (although I briefly considered keeping the patterns going there) and then the sole of the foot will be stockingette, so I will only be doing the twisted stitch pattern for half the stitches.


The side of the leg is also great -- you can see the way the travelling stitches make a cool motif, the way they come together and spread out. The effect is less apparent on the front and back of the leg, because the patterns are spaced so much further apart.

I think it looks pretty good, so far, although I admit that I might like the first sock pattern better. This one seems a bit blocky, perhaps? What do you think?

The Next Sock

When I chose the three motifs I used for my Real Love socks, I had a few other motifs on deck that I really liked together, and thought maybe I might make a second sock design using them. That time has come. I am planning this one out better than the first, and even making different sizes and stuff. I made up the charts and printed them off so that my own pair of socks will actually be a test of the pattern, as I write it.


Good thing I did, since I realized right away that the first row after the ribbed cuff is actually row 2 of the pattern, not row 1 -- whoops. I also noticed after knitting one repeat that the amount of travelling stitches in this sock draws the fabric in more than I expected, so the socks are going to be a bit too snug for a so-called Large. I also realized very quickly that this isn't the best yarn for this sort of a sock. It is a bit too splitty, which is somewhat aggravating for a travelling twisted stitch pattern. Perhaps aggravating is too strong a word -- but they are not relaxing and enjoyable, that's for sure. If that weren't enough, it is also getting quite a halo of fuzziness as I knit them, which I normally enjoy in my knitting, but in this case it is just going to obscure the lovely travelling stitch motifs, particularly after they are being worn.

So it will be back to the drawing board: rewrite the charts so the right row comes first, add a handful more stitches for a Large and make this chart the Medium, and begin again with a new yarn. I am going to use some sock yarn royalty for the second time around -- Madelinetosh Tosh Sock, in a spectacular ruby red grapefruit colour that will make my mouth water with every perfect little twisty stitch. Swoon.

Real Love Socks

With the lack of other entertainment on the weekend (and because I am still trying to spend a lot of time resting my knee) I managed to get a lot of knitting done. After I finished my Monkey socks, the only thing I had left unpacked and in-progress were my Real Love socks. It was probably a good thing, since the complexity of the travelling twisted stitches meant that I put these off more often than I worked on them.

If you recall, I got a twisted-stitch reference book for my birthday, and right away I threw together a couple of potential sock designs out of it. This was the first one, and is wide enough that it will fit my feet, in a very fine gauge. I had thought about potentially writing the pattern up to offer it to other people, but I'm not sure it would be very useful, since people with more normally sized feet would probably have a hard time making them fit without a lot of adjustments, anyway. In my experience, it's easier to upsize a sock pattern than to downsize one (assuming you can't just knit the whole thing at a tighter gauge, and I think that trying to knit a sock at a tighter gauge than 10 stitches per inch might just be crazy.) The next twisted-stitch sock pattern I have planned will be more appropriate, that way, and I may try my hand at selling knitting patterns, then.


I think I went into some detail on the patterns last time I mentioned these socks, but basically I just chose three that I thought were interesting together, that had the same repeat length in rows, and that created an interesting negative space (i.e. the purl background between the center motif and the one on either side, which you can see better on the first photo, or even better on this one I posted ages ago.) There is a span of the patterns where the stitches don't move, so I used that piece for the ribbing at the cuff, and also for the heel flap and for the toe. I think it looks pretty cool.

I named them Real Love socks partly because it takes some real love and dedication to make a 96-stitch circumference sock for size 10 feet, and also because I had John Lennon's song Real Love running around in my head while I was knitting them.


Funny side note: the current issue of Interweave Knits has a few twisted-stitch designs in there, and two of them use the same motifs as I did for these socks. Check out this one which uses the motif I have on the side of the leg, and this one which uses the double chain motif that I have beside it. Out of literally hundreds of stitch motifs in that book, we ended up with duplicates. Great minds think alike.

Getting My Groove Back

Last week I did some marathon knitting, and then felt it in my shoulder, after. I had to take a couple of days' hiatus to try to let the discomfort subside again. I think the cure was worse than the illness, in this case -- do you know how hard it is to just sit there and watch tv without knitting something?? How do the muggles do it? I had to keep distracting myself with books and online games and puzzles and chat... I got desperate enough after a couple of days that I convinced myself that crochet wouldn't bother my shoulder like knitting would, so I puttered away at a few more of the little sock yarn hexagons. In the last few days, I finally started to ease back into knitting (with plenty of breaks, of course.) I have managed to finish both fronts of the red cardigan -- only the sleeves are left before blocking it out for assembly, and they are thankfully cute little short sleeves.


I also finally finished off the first of the twisted stitch socks that I designed for myself. It worked out nicely, I think, and fits very comfortably. I used the same rib stitch that I unvented for the cuff to make the heel flap and the toe. I think it looks good, and certainly ties the various parts together. Now I just have to make the second...

Not Funny, God.

Seriously. Snow. On May 29th?? I feel my patience is really being tested, here.

Thankfully I have this spectacular Matcha Green Tea Latte, made with some hot vanilla almond milk and deliciously green matcha powder. Please take note of the sweet mug, which my HLM brought home for me from his recent trip. I've got him trained, I tell ya.


Also, I have this lovely little sock to keep me happy. I've been wanting to try my hand at pattern-designing, for a while, now. Lately I've been thinking a lot about socks, about shawls. When I went to my LYS the other day, to spend some birthday gift certificates, I intended to buy some sort of lace pattern book, but instead was charmed by one on Austrian twisted stitch knitting. Of course a sock is a perfect place to showcase this type of stitching, but in a manageable amount.

Basically I just went through the book and found a few different stitch patterns that I liked, which had the same repeat length (I didn't really want to go crazy trying to keep track of what row I was on, on every given pattern, after all) and lined them up next to each other in a way I found aesthetically pleasing. The one on the far right is going to be down each side of the leg, and the marquise shape will run down the center of the leg and foot. Bear in mind that this sock has 10 stitches to the inch in stockingette. Not exactly a quick knit. But don't you love it?? I am almost to the heel flap on this one, and then I get to change things up a bit for the gusset (and thankfully start knitting some stockingette for the sole. Phew.)