Another Pair of Footie Socks

Earlier this week I showed you my pair of Footie Socks with a bit of stranded colorwork on the foot.  These are made using the Footie Socks pattern that I've been using for about 10 years.  It's a great pattern.  I've also made multiple pairs of the Rose City Rollers footies.  

Recently I ran across another pattern for footie socks - the Shicheng No Show socks.  These have the more open top foot (is it instep?) of the Footie Socks, but they're knit top down (knit towards the toe) like the Rose City Rollers.  For some reason I really prefer top down socks, so I'm hoping this might be the perfect sock pattern.  I'm knitting them in a leftover cashmere blend yarn from Wonderland Yarns, but it was part of a set or kit of two yarns and doesn't really have it's own colorway.  It's a pale gray with multicolored speckles.

I've got the first sock almost finished, and have made good progress on the second.  There is a ribbing cuff to be added last, and I decided to do both socks at the same time, so it looks a bit wonky right now.  I have tried it on and I have high hopes for the finished socks.  Have I found the ultimate footie sock pattern in the universe?  Is this the one footie sock to rule them all?  Do you know how weird the word "footie" looks when you type it over and over and over?  Tune in to a future blog post for the final results of this battle for supreme sock dominance!  Or not, maybe no one else is really that concerned about footie socks.

Catching Up

It's been a minute since I've been here!  Overall things are fine, there's just been a LOT happening.  I won't bore you with all the details, but I hope to be back for regular blogging.  I have been knitting this whole time, and I have a couple of finished objects!

I finished my Astrid Socks, knit in Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Charcoal and Dream in Color Smooshy in My Fair Lady.  I only did the stranded colorwork on the legs of the sock and just knit the foot in solid Charcoal.  Since My Fair Lady is a multicolored yarn it kind of fades in and out of the Charcoal, but I like the effect.

I also knit a pair of Footie Socks and added a bit of colorwork on the foot.  I used one of the patterns from the Basic Doodle Socks and I used the same yarns from the Astrid Socks.  This is a sock pattern I've been knitting for years (according to Ravelry, I knit the first pair in 2014) and I really like it.

Finally, since it seemed like a good idea, I started the Go Go Dynamo Shawl - Stephen West's MKAL shawl for this fall.  I'm using Malabrigo Mechita in Natural (Main Color) and Aniversario (Contrast Color).  I bought two skeins of each color in 2018, planning to make a striped sweater.  I never made the sweater, and when I saw them in my stash I knew they'd be perfect for this project.  I'm hoping to finish the first clue today and I'm ready to move straight into the second clue.  (The third clue comes out Thursday, so I'm running a little behind, but there's not really a time limit.  I'll get there when I get there.)  I probably won't show any actual photos of the shawl until November.  That way I don't have to juggle spoiler alerts and worry about ruining the surprise for someone else, but you can at least see my yarns!

As I said, I hope to get back into the habit of regular blogging.  We'll see what my life has to say about that, but hopefully I'll be here a little bit more!  Hope you're all doing well.  It's supposed to cool off here tomorrow and we'll get a real taste of fall!  (For those of you wondering what fall looks like in north Texas, it's supposed to be in the high 60's tomorrow.)

We're Still Knitting Socks Around Here

I've finished my first Astrid sock, and I've started on the second one.  I'm about two rounds into the colorwork at this point, so you can just barely see some floats where the knitting is rolling a bit.  These are not complicated socks, and by working the foot entirely in Charcoal it does go pretty quickly.  Unfortunately, this is one of those times where life is really crazy and I'm just not doing a lot of knitting right now.  I'm hoping to get these finished by the end of the month because then I can submit them to ESK for the third quarter Craft-A-Long (colorwork socks), but honestly, if I don't get them done it's not the end of the world.

Hope you have a great weekend.  I'm hoping I have time for a nap!

A New Sweater

As soon as I finished the Sous Sous pullover I started another sweater.  This one is top down, from a designer whose patterns I've knit before, with a more traditional shaping - so there's no (mostly unnecessary) second guessing on my part.  This is the Keera pullover from Isabell Kraemer.  I'm knitting it in Blue Sky Fibers Extra in the Lei colorway.   The fiber content of the yarn and the feel of it are identical to Berroco Ultra Alpaca.  I haven't compared them side by side (or even the labels) so I don't know if they're the same weight or not.  I've always loved the feel of Ultra Alpaca in my hands while I'm knitting, so it's nice to have a second option with a different color range.

As you can see, the sweater looks pretty simple from the front.

The back has a little more going on!  It's still a simple knit and the lace isn't difficult once you get a few rounds into it so you can see what it's doing.

As it turns out, this is exactly what I need right now because my non knitting life has just gotten crazy.  I'll blog when I can and when I actually have something to show, but I may not be as regular as I try to be around here.

Finished!

I have finished the Sous Sous Pullover!  It's knit in Madelinetosh Tosh DK in the Fatal Attraction colorway (this is a stunning red!).  I made the Small - it's meant to be oversized, but Fifi is positively swimming in it because she's missing half of her shoulders (no arms).

If you look at the projects on Ravelry and read project notes, there's a lot going on.  I got really freaked out the first time I was knitting this (there was a time deadline) and I quit.  Fortunately, most of the concerns about the pattern aren't actual issues.  The shaping for this sweater is very different from most sweaters, but at least for the small, the directions are overall correct.  (Here is a link to my project page with all of the below notes as well - you will need to be signed into Ravelry to see it.)

That said, I did make a few notes and changes:

• Work the first and last stitches in rib, so the edges match.  The front has this set up for a five stitch edge, which is what I used.  The back has a three stitch edge.  Pick one and stick with it for both pieces so they match.
• Reverse wrap the Yarn Over after the P3tog so it's the same size as it's mate.  Untwist it on the following row.
• Work the twisted stitches in the chart as twisted on both the Right Side and the Wrong Side.
• Work front increases (used for the shaping) as Yarn Overs on Right Side, but twist them on the wrong side to close them up, as either twisted knit or purl in pattern.
• For the back neck - I picked up stitches along the back neck (1 for every 2), then knit the band, attaching it to the back neck, like the edging of a shawl.  Grafted the band to the opposite front when I got there.
• Finally, I sewed the front and back together at the lower sides and then picked up stitches in the round for the sleeves.  I also picked up two fewer stitches than called for to account for the two stitches I would have lost when seaming the sleeves.  Working them in the round seemed easier to my brain than working them flat.

As you can see, there are only minor errata to the actual pattern, that an experienced knitter will correct without a lot of thought.  The pattern itself is correct as far as the big numbers and directions go.  I did knit the front first, marking the beginning of each chart repeat on each side of that row, and when I knit the back I did the same marking of rows.  This helped me count while I was knitting and keep them straight while I was seaming them together.

This was definitely not an auto-pilot sweater, but I'm really happy with the finished garment.  I'm honestly open to knitting it again (I have a dark blue green that I'm thinking about).  I'm glad I stuck with it though and made this!

I've already started another sweater though, and this one is definitely in the auto pilot category!
 

New Socks!

I went ahead and cast on for a new pair of socks after I finished my Mischief Socks, but these have less colorwork.  This is the Astrid Sock, and I'm using Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Charcoal and Dream in Color Smooshy in My Fair Lady.  I plan to skip the colorwork on the foot and just work it in the solid Charcoal.  Theoretically, these should go faster, but the rest of the month is going to be CRAZY around here, plus I'm still working on my Sous Sous pullover, so who knows how long they'll actually take.

Progress

I have finished the back of Sous Sous, and I've actually got it joined to the front at the shoulders!  (I took this picture before finishing the back neck, but all of those yarns have been woven in now.)  Next up are the sleeves.  The pattern is written to knit them to the body of the sweater, flat, then seam them closed, along with the side seams.  I'm playing with the idea of seaming the sides now and knitting the sleeves in the round.  That would eliminate the sleeve seam and it would feel better to wear.  The sleeves are short little things (the body is wide) and don't need the added structure seaming would give, so I'm pretty sure I can get away with it.  I'm going to think about it a bit, but I'm leaning towards working them in the round.

Either way, I hope to get started on the first sleeve this weekend.  The end of this sweater is in sight!  For my next sweater, I want to work a nice top down thing that doesn't take a lot of thought!