Piano mitts

My 80+ year old friend plays the piano, but not for long periods of time, because her hands get cold... So I made her these mitts, using the Skyp Socks pattern for the ribbing.


That is a picture of her hands, posing at the piano. I should have made more pictures of the mitts. Oh well.

Erratic heels

Behold the erratic heel:


This was my experiment, merging two different heel techniques: Rachel's technique of increases and decreases (as used in this pattern, which I never bought) combined with the boomerang heel explained here, boomeranging every right side of the short row heel. I was trying this on as I erratically created this heel, first with the increases, and then with the boomerangs. I discovered that half a boomerang heel was good enough for my foot. In other words, I got as far as half the short row heel, then simply kept knitting in the round again and performed the decreases:


As Cat Bordhi said, you cannot argue with a foot. The end result is stripes across the heel area without interruption, which is what I was hoping for. Of course, the stripes across instep and heel are thinner compared to the rest of the sock. Upon close inspection, having only half a boomerang heel looks kind of incomplete.


Also, I suck at the increases. But who cares? I have stripes across the heel, and the socks fit. Woohoo!


Do I see some creases on the instep?  Mmmmh... I was trying to avoid those, and that is why I did not even bother with Rachel's sock pattern. In my next experiment everything will be the same, but I will try boomeranging the other half of the heel too.That should give more depth to the heel. We'll see.

By the way, the pattern is the Skyp socks, very easy to memorize, creates some visual interest and does not clash with the horizontal stripes of self-patterning yarn. I loved it!

Sock Blank Tie-Dye

It started out with a sock blank knitted with the Addi express. Then came a big dye pot with water previously used to soak black beans. I used Epsom salts as mordant, knowing very well that I was going to get a light gray color thanks to a swatch I made sometime ago. The result was so ugly that I refused to even make a picture. So back to the dyepot, after a few rubber bands were involved, more bean water, and alum as a mordant. And this is what came out.

Not bad at all. Stripes will be more like flecks, since bands don't necessarily correcpond to rows:


Now onto the next problem: This is the second sock blank I dye, but I am afraid of knitting them up knowing that the color transition/banding will be disrupted when turning the heel. I've been searching for a way to prevent this that does not involve using a different yarn for the heel. This is what I found so far.

I remain unconvinced. I know it's hard to judge from a picture, but I have the feeling that this heel is too boxy. Then there is this pattern. If you look closely, the heel has increases, and then instead of a heel flap, a few more rounds, followed by heel decreases. While this looks like a very interesting construction, I cannot help but notice the crease on top of the foot when the sock is worn, so I will not even attempt to follow it. The increases are, however, very interesting, as they look like upside-down versions of decreases. Very symmetrical, and they are described in detail in this page. What if I combined both ideas (increases, boomerang short rows, then decreases) into a single heel?

Hybrid

Not long ago I made this shawl:


I never liked it. Not only was it very boring to knit, it also looked plain and tended to roll up. I wore it once and was uncomfortable with it, it did not work neither as a shawl nor as a scarf. So I ripped it and used the yarn for a new shawl that started out with the Belmondo pattern. After using up a little less than 2/3 of my yarn, I added the edging of the Lazy Katy pattern. Because it comes from two different patterns, I named it Hybrid. This is the result:

Surprisingly, it is a little bit larger than the original. It also looks far more interesting and it lies flat. I already wore it once over a dress and it stayed on my shoulders all night without a pin. Ripping that first shawl turned out to be a great idea.

Heat map

The spouse thought of the name and I think it's quite fitting, given the colors. The pattern is the Double Eyelet Rib Socks, by Wendy Johnson, modified to seven repeats around the foot instead of 8 (total 56 stitches instead of 64).


The yarn is something I bought in Germany many years ago, called Belday. It reminds me of a Regia colorway I once worked with, except that it has a bright red instead of orange, but otherwise the striping pattern is very similar, to the point that I am sure they were intentionally imitating Regia's colorway. Here's a picture without flash, but neither one of them captures the colors well.


Someone might wonder if 56 stitches are enough for an adult sock. They were just right for me and I have no complaints.

Sapphires

Again, some pattern I found in ravelry but never added to my favorites. I just knitted a few rows, memorized it and now I cannot remember what it is or how I came across it. It's a very easy honeycomb pattern, but I would not have come up with it on my own. Pity I cannot give due credit.

The socks are very pretty, thanks to the beautiful yarn from Rabbitworks. The colorway is called "Cryptic Notes".

Micro

I almost named this shawl "redemption" given the recent bad luck I've had with shawls. But this is just a small kiri, and Micro is what best describes it.


It's not for me, it's for my sister, who admired my Nano once. My sister is allergic to wool, so I had to use cotton. I'm using something called Basics, from the Italian brand lana grossa. It's shiny and soft and much better than your regular dishcloth cotton... but frankly, I prefer Mexican Sinfonia. It splits much less, and one 100g skein holds many more yards than a 50g skein, which is how they sell Basics. Plus Sinfonia is cheaper.


I only used two skeins of basics for this shawl. That meant hiding four ends. Cotton is not lace friendly when it comes to weaving in ends. If I had gone with Sinfonia, I could have finished this shawl with only one skein.


Live and learn...

Confetti

For some reason, I forgot to post this pair of socks here after posting them in Ravelry. Well, here they are:



It's a simple pattern, with lace ladders all around it. On the back of the sock the lace is made with purl stitches as an experiment. There isn't really much difference in the end result. The little holes and the splashes of color make me think of confetti, hence the name.

I seriously thought I should name them "transition socks", since I finished them as I was changing jobs. But the truth is, the job change is completely unrelated to the socks. It came about without me having any control in the process.

Long story short, I was told my contract was not going to be renewed, but before my contract was over I had found a different job. The new job is nothing to be excited about, but then, there is no such thing as a perfect job. I consider myself lucky to have avoided unemployment. I even managed to squeeze in a long weekend in a Mountain Lodge between jobs.


The yarn is called Admiral Flakes, by Schoppen Wolle. I loved it. It came with my swap socks from Estibaliz and it was a wonderful gift.

Haruni

There was once an incomplete shawl that ended up abandoned in a corner after running out of yarn. Several attempts were made to substitute with a similar yarn. None worked. But finally, I am pleased to announce that embroidery floss, split in half, worked out. It's only the final crochet row that ended up finished with floss, the rest is all kidsilk spray. Which is, by the way, a terrible yarn for this pattern. The two contrasting colors create splotches that blur the pretty leaf design. All in all, I loved the yarn and the pattern, but not the combination of both.

Slanted

Socks for the spouse, kindly modeled by him. Sometime ago in Ravelry I found something similar but forgot to save the link, so I recreated the pattern as best as I could. Made with Cascade Heritage.