Let's Talk About Socks!

I've knit two pairs of socks so far this year, so I thought this morning I'd show them to you!  They're both socks knit from the top cuff down in fingering weight yarn, but that's where the similarities end.

The first pair is the I Heart Harvest Socks.  I knit them in Malabrigo Ultimate Sock in the Sabiduria colorway.  This is a ribbed sock and the gusset is on the top of the sock instead of the lower sides by the heel flap.  The ribs accentuate the shaping and fine tune the fit.  The finished socks are a little more interesting than a standard ribbed sock, and would be great for gifts because the ribs give you more leeway size wise.  

The pattern comes in multiple sizes, so as long as you're in the ballpark, the ribbing will adjust to the actual foot size of the wearer.  The knitting itself is straight forward, and while I did slow down a bit at the heel turn and setting up the gusset, once I understood how the pattern worked I was knitting along quickly again.  The second sock went faster through this section.  I love the finished socks.  There's enough design wise to make them interesting to knit and wear, but not so much that I would hesitate to knit a pair for Mickael or Caleb (they both prefer simple sock styles).  I will definitely be making more of these!

The second pair of socks is the Feet Teeth Socks!  This pattern has several variations between the tooth size and style; stripes, dots, or a solid "body;" and even the placement of the mouth.  Sizing for kids to adults is included so everyone can have some!  I chose to make the striped socks with the large teeth on the toe.  I grabbed some yarns leftover from other socks to make these, and I will definitely be making them again with some more leftovers.  The main part of the socks are knit in Cascade Heritage in Caribbean Sea and Lady Dye Sock yarns in Whistledown's Watchful Eye.  The teeth are knit in Cascade Heritage in Snow, and the mouth and eyes are both Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Secrets and Charcoal respectively.  This is the first time I've really done duplicate stitching (the eyes are duplicate stitched) and it shows.  The second pair of eyes looks better than the first.  I love these socks just because they make me laugh.  If you were to put them in shoes, they would just look like striped socks, but you'd know there were monsters in your shoes!  I think they'd be really fun in a dressy, conservative black or navy with the monsters lurking in wing tip shoes.  I might have to knit Caleb a pair to wear to interviews!

Pink and Snuggly!

Earlier this year, I finished my Keera pullover that I've shown here in progress.  I knit it in Blue Sky Fibers Extra in the Lei colorway.  This yarn is very similar to Berroco Ultra Alpaca (about half wool, half alpaca) and is just as fun knit with.  It has a bounce to it and it's just a very enjoyable yarn to knit.

This pattern was fun also!  It's worked top down and everything except the back is worked in stockinette.  The back stitch pattern isn't too complicated (I used stitch markers to separate the different sections), and I found it easy to knit while I was watching TV.  I did do the little pockets on the front, not that pockets in knits are super useful (they tend to stretch easily),  but I feel like the world needs more pockets anyway, so I will pretty much always add pockets to everything if given the opportunity!  I could line the pockets with a woven fabric to help them hold their shape if I wanted them to be more useful, but so far I haven't been bothered enough to do that.  (On the other hand, as I'm thinking this through as I write, I do have a scrap of a lovely pink floral paisley Liberty Tana Lawn that would be amazing for pocket linings in this sweater.  I'll have to think about that!)  At this point, the sweater won't be wearable until late October if I'm lucky, so I've got plenty of time to think about whether to line or not to line (the pockets, that is!)

Decisions, decisions...

Hello, Again!

Well I'm not sure if anyone is even still around here, but I guess we'll see!  My life has been crazy over the last year or so, but I've been wanting to get back to blogging, so here I am.  I won't promise regular posts, but I'll pop in when I can and we'll go from there.  I'm not going to get into details, so let's get into the knitting, instead!

I've finished a few things since I was last here, so I figured I'd start there.  This is the West Knits Mystery Shawl for last Fall - the Go Go Dynamo!  It was a fun project, not too difficult, but enough going on to keep things interesting.  Also, for a two color shawl, there were a LOT of ends to weave in - but it was totally worth it!  I used Malabrigo Mechita in the Natural and Aniversario colorways.  I can't tell you how many times I've used the Aniversario colorway at this point, but I love it and I make no apologies!

This shawl has short rows and mosaic knitting and brioche, as well as modular elements that get connected together with other modular elements.  

Like I said, lots of things going on, so it wasn't boring.

In the end I had a big, snuggly, shlanket sized shawl that I just love!

I'll be back with more when I can!