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!

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".

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.

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.

They're Here!

They arrived last Saturday, but with the spouse taking until the last minute to file taxes I was unable to post pictures until today: In addition to my socks, Estibaliz included som Admiral Flakes yarn, stitch markers, needle point protectors, a row counter, a cute little purse, lip gloss and..... chocolate ladubugs! I love chocolate. They did not last long. As for the socks, they are warm and cozy and fit perfectly well. I only wish I knew what yarn it is, otherwise they are never going in the washer. I'm very happy with my socks. I wore them already and now they're soaking in Woolite.

Right on time

My swap socks were finished a week ago, then washed, blocked, and finally sent this Saturday to their destination. I hope their new owner likes them!

Monochrome Argyle

I finished today the spouse's socks, the ones that were originally on my needles. I finished them using my grandmother's needles which, unlike my addis, have a stiffer cable and the union between cable and needle is not as smooth. Anyway, picture time: Regarding the swap socks, this is the Rabbitworks yarn in the "Cryptic Notes" colorway. The camera does not do it justice. It combines several hues of deep blue. I look at it and think of sapphires. And this is how it looks when combined with "Revenge" using the Pinwheel pattern: I had to add a stitch, given that when knitting with two yarns you need an even number of stitches. Also, I refuse to make a pinwheel garter stitch toe. I know the garter stitch pinwheels are what give this pattern its name, but I personally find garter stitch toes very uncomfortable. This is the toe I prefer to wear, and so I used it for this pair of socks too.

Better than nothing

At least I am past the toes. Which isn't much, especially considering that I am going to rip the few rows I've knit after finishing the increases.



I am making Pinwheel Socks. I have made two pairs so far and feel confident enough with the pattern that I will not have to worry about screwing things up. I also wanted to try it with a single yarn, given that so far I have used this pattern to get rid of scraps.

It turns out that the real beauty of this pattern lies in the vertical stripes. Using only one yarn is creating a very boring pair of socks. Luckily, I have another skein of this Rabbitworks yarn, in a pretty blue colorway called "Cryptic Notes". I hope they work well together.

Shame

Last week I posted a picture of my sock swap yarn, wound up into two nice center pull balls. Have I made any progress? Why yes, I put the yarn in a baggie:




You might have noticed that there are no needles in the baggie. That's because the needles are currently in another baggie, holding another pair of socks I thought I would have finished by now:




Yes, I know, I should not procrastinate, after all there's a deadline. I am posting this to shame myself into hurrying up.

To hell with shawls

So, way back in October, I was working with a yarn that had glitter in it but was still very soft: Lanalux. I wanted to create an object of beauty and I chose the Sheri shawlette pattern, simply because it allows you to use up all the yarn with not much waste, since it is knitted sideways. I called this thing boredom because it requires a lot of boring stockinette.

Speaking of which, all that stockinette might have worked with another yarn, but my shawlette rolls at the edges even after wet blocking and steam blocking. I don't dare to use the iron because of the glitter. Don't let it fool you. It's lying flat against the sofa but in reality it rolls on itself without provocation.



In November I moved on to another shawl, something more challenging and without any stockinette: Haruni. I used two balls of kidsilk spray and finished the second to last row. Alas, there is not enough yarn to finish the last row. Kidsilk spray is, by the way, discontinued. So the future of my shawl is bleak.



After three failures in a row (I am counting the Garden View Shawlette as a failure) my knitting mojo dried up.

But I find myself itching again for the needles, so I joined a sock swap for Spanish speakers: Swapetines. I used to participate in that sock swap, stopped for a couple of years, but now feel like it's time to rejoin them. Today I split the skein into two pull out balls:



This is 75% superwash merino from Rabbitch, in a colorway she calls revenge. I had originally ordered a different colorway, but she had ran out of it. She reimbursed me, including shipping, and then sent me a skein in this colorway free of charge. Isn't she a nice lady?

The yarn is beautiful, though these days I find myself gravitating towards browns, grays and tans. When I learned that my swap victim likes bright colors I thought it was time to knit up this pretty yarn.

Snakes and Ladders

Another September project. I did not know if I wanted lace or cables in my socks, so I went with both. Someone from India told me years ago that she knew knitted cables as "snakes", and so I thought of the game "snakes and ladders" as I knitted the socks. Later I learned that in the US the game is know as "chutes and ladders".



Thanks to wikipedia, I now know that the game originated in India, and that over there it is still known as "snakes and ladders". So I'm sticking to that name.

I used a yarn called Summer Sox, which was a pleasure to knit with, though the ends tend to get splitty and weaving them in was not easy. In keeping with my obsession of using up all my yarn, I used the leftovers to make fingerless mitts for a friend, in the same pattern.



No leftovers! Yay!

Waffles

This was an August project: Socks for the spouse. Well I think I actually started them in July, but had to interrupt them to make the Shedirs. Which reminds me: Many thanks for those of you who offered to pray for my sister. She keeps to herself these days, and I repeat to myself over and over that no news is good news...

Anyway, onto the pictures:



Socks in a very boring gray, knitted with 2 mm needles (that's US size 0). They would have been a drag were it not for the fact that heritage quattro is really nice to knit with. Also, the Ridge Squares pattern was easy to memorize.



Nowadays I knit mostly socks. And I always start them from the toe with a figure 8 cast on, and I always do a short row heel, and I always cast off with Jeny's stretchy bind-off.

There was a time when I liked trying new techniques and I even bought Cat Bordi's first book on adventurous sock knitting. I usually do not buy many books, much less knitting books, so that was a biggie. But I never bothered with the second book. I didn't even try to check it out of the library.

As for Sock Summit, as much as I love the concept, I've never been there. Let's face it, I'm too settled into my sock knitting by now. I know what works for me, and I am not itching to learn anything new.

I am one boring knitter.

But Rabbitch's post about Sock Summit got me thinking about another undesirable aspect of my knitting. Why am I so cheap? Why can't I splurge once in a while? Especially when it comes to independent artists. I love the stuff they make, my mouth waters when I see their lovely merchandise, and yet I never buy any fiber or yarns from them.

Next year, I will skip Stitches West and spend some money on Etsy instead. I will try Rabbitch's goodies, of course, but I will also consider other Etsy shops. Does anyone have another favorite Etsy yarn or fiber shop to recommend?

Labyrinth socks

So this is the pattern that was playing in my head. It does not work in the round with all those diagonals, so it's mainly on the top of the sock. After the heel I added a bit of the pattern to the back without completing the whole circuit to avoid staggering.



Did you notice that they are mirror images? I am sometimes anal like that. If I have not made a Pomatomus pair it's because I am too lazy to figure out the mirror image of the pattern.

By the way, I know I said these other socks look like camouflage, but the name fits this yarn much better.



If you ever want to knit a pair of socks to go with a camouflage outfit, choose Panda Soy in the Chocolate Almonds colorway.

I am still busy packing, we are moving a week from now! Here's one sock on a foot, posing on one of the moving boxes:

More Scraps Soup

This is my second version of Scraps Soup. This time I used only one strand of yarn when knitting the cuff, though I did change yarns halfway. I'm not sure I like how it looks.



I am running out of ideas regarding what to do about the cuff. I am also running out of scraps, which is actually a good thing, because I was itching to try a non-wool yarn and a different, lacey pattern that has been running through my head lately.

I actually finished these socks more than a week ago, but I have been very busy lately. Why? Because we're moving to our own home pretty soon! We are ecstatic, but overwhelmed with packing. I started with the books, and I've filled up 50 boxes already. Luckily, I have the ideal packing material.

Scraps Soup

Not that you'd ever catch me making soup from food scraps. It's just that I find the name fitting for socks made with leftover scraps from two previous pairs.



The pattern is the Pinwheel Socks by Elise Duvekot. Except that they don't have the characteristic pinwheel on either the heel or the toe. I prefer not to use garter stitch on my socks, that's why. Additionally, they're knit from the toe up, using 60 stitches for toe and heel and 40 stitches for the body of the sock.

I added a knit one, purl one cuff after increasing again to 60 stitches. I was making all the purls with one yarn and the knits with the other. I don't like the results much. The cuff is not as stretchy as it would have been when using only one yarn, and it does not create the contrast I expected.



Still, I am not ripping, just making a note an moving onto the second pair, with more scraps. Though not with these yarns. This is all I have left:

Another Hiatus

Well, I have been knitting, but obviously not blogging. Rest assured, all is well and it's just been a matter of being too busy. I'm still enjoying the new job.

I finished the tabi socks. I followed the method described by Lyn Vogel in the Twisted Sisters' Sock Workbook. Here's a picture of the sock before the big toe was finished.



My, the spouse really has an ugly toe.

And here's the final results.



I hope they fit my father, who is the actual recipient.

New Project

Ugh. Another grey one. This one will be for my father. I have not made a cuff down pair of socks for a while and I think I made the cuff too long.

DIY knitting loom

A co-worker showed me this video and I thought I'd post it here. Sadly, I was unable to embed it. It's in Japanese, but it is self-explanatory.

I've been working on the hideous socks. It's funny how I don't find them that hideous anymore. Ugly, yes, but not hideous.



I still want to give them another dye bath when I'm done.

No more squeaking

Thankfully, I finished the socks. The spouse likes them:




He wore them today and I missed taking a picture this morning with daylight. Sorry for the evening blurry picture.

I dug out some yarn I dyed in 2006. I predicted back then that it was going to take me a couple of years to knit it up. Well, as usual, I was being over-optimistic.




And as I go on knitting, I realize how hideous the color combination is. That's the problem with dyeing, you never know what you get because wet yarn looks darker that it actually is. I will keep on knitting and maybe later give the socks another dye bath. We'll see.