Thursday, August 29, 2013

Rainy Days and Mondays

Project Name: Rainy Days and Mondays
Pattern Name: Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Yarn Used: Lion Brand Sock-Ease Prints in 201 Rock Candy and I used 284.7 yards (260.3m)
Needle Size: US 1 - 2.25 mm
Project  love: ♥♥♥♥ out of 5 ♥

 
See my notes on my Ravelry Project Page HERE.

This was my first time using Size one needles. My first time with this pattern. My first time with this yarn. The needles were easier to manage than I would have thought. When you are a bulky knit girl the thought of working on these small DPNs can be intimidating, but I think I am over my small needle fear now.

I took gauge after I started knitting and found I was getting 9 stitches to an inch - not 8. But the socks ended up fitting me well in the end. I did soak them and block them on my sock blockers, but I tried them on before that and found they were fitting just fine.

My goal was to have these finished before school started and I didn't think I would make it - but I did! I finished the knitting and the end weaving with 23½ hours to spare! LOL. Cutting it close! But I did it. It killed me not to immediatly rince them and block them out, but I had school, so yeah.

The pattern was great. It's in Stephanie's book Knitting Rules!: The Yarn Harlot's Bag of Knitting Tricks and part of what I loved about this pattern was that she spend pages and pages explaining what each part of the sock construction is, how to personalize it to get it to really fit your foot, and then there is a two page "cheat sheet" where the pattern for a good, plain sock is just written out. If you get yourself a little stuck, you can look back in the book and read about the construction of the area you are working on and get an explanation of what you are really doing when you are on that area. Really nice! I would recommend the book just for that alone.

As for the yarn, I admit I pulled it out of my stash because it was clearance yarn and I wanted my first time working on fingering weight yarn to NOT be some expensive Indy died yarn. It would break my heart to mess up on that kind of yum. I find the yarn to be very attractive, and my hubby said they are his favorite of my socks so far, but the yarn itself is rather scratchy and I found areas to be a little inconsistent in weight when I was working on my socks. I had a spot where the yarn just seemed to be a bit thinner. Still, I suspect I will get a lot of wear out of these, and with how rough they are they will probably last for a long time. Would never give these as a gift though. I suspect the recipient would not be pleased with the scratchy factor. 

Overall I am very pleased with these socks and can't wait to wear them this fall/winter.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Catching up

My goodness - how time gets away from a person! I had no intention of taking an almost 2 month break from my blog, but it appears that is exactly what I did! Since my last post I enrolled in the local community college and will be going for an Associate in Applied Science Information Technology Support Degree. It is a two year degree and I am sincerely hoping it increases my potential in the job market. I start classes next week and will be taking 6 classes this semester while working full time. My head may very well explode, but I am also excited to be moving forward on my life in this way.

So that has been a huge chunk of what I have been doing the last two months. Meeting with the various people in the college, setting up a million different accounts, and enrolling in classes. I have managed to work in a little knitting too! I have finished just one project since I last wrote. Now that I am knitting socks, I find my finished objects are further and further apart.


Project Name: Summer Breeze - Makes me feel fine
Pattern Name: An Anklet a Day.... by Jessica Marks
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici Sport Self Striping and I used 1.05 skeins = 172.2 yards (157.5m)
Needle: US 2 - 2.75 mm
Size: Fits my size US 7½ foot
Love: ♥♥♥♥ out of 5 ♥s

You can find my Ravelry Project Notes HERE.



This is proof that I am a slow knitter as it took me close to a month to finish these guys. And when I was done I thought I wouldn't like them as they are really pretty short, but I find myself loving them and wearing them around the house all the time. We have hard wood floors and I always get cold feet, so they are a pretty perfect summer sock. I think if I made them again I would increase the ribbing (maybe double or triple?) as I like my socks to stay put and I just feel like these want to slop a bit. I also found some errata in the pattern and found that I had to spend some time working things out that an experienced sock knitter probably wouldn't have a hard time figuring out. ("Continue on in this manner..." instructions tend to throw me for a loop!)

But overall I am very pleased with them and they are very wearable!
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