Finished Object: Fall over you

Needle: Size 4 40" circular {Magic Loop with afterthought heel}
Project Name: Fall over you
Yarn: Patons North America Classic Wool Merino in Colorway Harvest - 1 Skein

These knit up super fast! Just over two weeks and they are complete. Love how fast they were and they are really thick and warm - so I suspect I will be wearing these when I am shoveling snow this winter.

These are an amalgamation of several patterns I have used and kind of a standard pattern I use now.

I prefer magic loop at this point with one long circular need, top down, one at a time.

Since this was worsted weight yarn and knit it on size 4 needles I knew it would be dense, so I cast on 48 sts over two needles, removed one needle, and then began the ribbing.

I did the ribbing for three inches, then five inches of stockinette before placing the waste yarn.

Here is a photo that shows the waste yarn knit in. The first time I chose a yarn that blended with the socks a little too well, so I got smart and found a higher contrast yarn the second time.

I always make my heel before I get to the toe, so that I can try on the sock and fit it perfectly as I go.

 

For this sock I added the heel after I had knit about five inches past the waste yarn, then I try on the sock and see where it is sitting on my toe area. I generally like it to be around the top of my pinky toe before I start my decreases.

I take notes as I go through my first sock and try to duplicate it on my second. I do not count rows, so my socks are not a perfect match ever. But I get close and the notes help make it so my heels are not funky. (Although I have indeed made socks and accidentally put a different heel in the second sock. Doh!)

I am really happy with these socks and I have already ordered a pair of liners for (Fox River Wick Dry Coolmax Liner Socks off of Amazon) so that if my feet sweat when I wear these the liners will wick that sweat away and keep my feet warmer.

I am pretty sure I will be turning to these this winter when I am shoveling all that Minnesota snow.

Finished Object: Tropical Feet Wave

Pattern: How I Make Worsted Weight Socks by Susan B. Anderson
Needle: Size 4 double Points
Project Name: Tropical Feet Wave
Yarn: Mountain Colors Twizzle in Springtime (MC) & Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Worsted in Bud Green

I am in love with these socks! They knit up so fast on size 4 needles with worsted weight yarn. I love the silky feel of the Twizzle (85% Merino, 15% Silk content) and I think the Nashua (75% Wool, 25% Alpaca) is a nice contrast texturally to the Twizzle. This was my first time knitting a contrast yarn on the ankle/heel/toe

The ribbing on the ankle is Knit 3, Purl 1, which is different for me and I really like it. The socks are snug - but in a good way. Comfortable and not bunchy.

I had never used this pattern before and I found it was more of a guide than a tutorial. Meaning - I followed it along with her How I Make My Socks pattern (which is for fingering weight rather than worsted) and I also used my go to Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee,
and my own sock knitting experience thrown in to boot.

I am just happy as a pig in mud about these socks and I suspect they will get much wear this fall and winter. They are dense and warm and modeling them in 80°F temps was sticky and unpleasant, so I know when the fall weather arrives I will be seeking these out.

Finished Object: Don't tread[mill] on me Socks

I finished my Don't tread[mill] on me socks!

Yarn: 235 yards of Knit Picks Felici Sport Self Striping in the color "Depths". 

Needle: US 2 - 2.75 mm

Pattern: Loosely based on Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee with an afterthought heel.

 

With all the mistakes and craziness of these socks I was thinking they would be shoved in a sock drawer and forgot about when I finished them, but when I tried them both on together I found I actually really liked them! They are cozy and comfortable and even though they are kind of a mess, I am thinking they will be great with jeans this fall/winter.  

 

 

I did some of the ribbing and most of the knitting on the treadmill. I think I figured out at one point I was getting about an inch and a half of knitting done in a session on the treadmill, and I walk fairly slowly, so about three miles of walking for an inch and a half of knitting. 

I am learning more and more about sock knitting and am getting better at picking up the stitches for the afterthought heel. The first sock I did pick up the wrong leg of the knit stitch all the way across the foot. It was really hard knitting and it twisted the stitches across the ankle .

 

And I don't know what I was thinking on those toe decreases, but when I put them on they felt good and they are really comfortable, so I guess all the weirdness is forgiven. I learned a lot about sock construction and what works for me, and got a bunch of miles on my treadmill to boot, so I guess it's a win win!

 

 

Finished Project: Socksocksocksocksock

I finished another pair of socks! YAY! This is the second pair I finished this year. GO ME!

Pattern: Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Project: Socksocksocksocksock
Cast on: June 15, 2014
Bind off: July 30, 2014
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici in Building Blocks (288 yards)
Needle: Size 2 Double Points

Am in love with them. This yarn is great and I love striping socks and I love the colors in these socks. I wish this yarn had not been discontinued! The only bummer about this project is that the second skein of yarn had dye speckles throughout the skein, so there was some sort of heathering/speckled look. Kind of tweedy.

The above picture shows what I mean. There was dye splotches through out this skein. Annoying - but I didn't notice it until I was well into the sock and I was NOT going to rip it back at that point!

As much as I love these socks, I am even more in favor of doing an afterthought heel in self-striping yarn. The heels look fine (I did Eye of Partridge), but I really like how an afterthought works with the striping yarn. You don't get the thin stripes around the ankle like you do when you work a more standard heel. But all in love, I consider these a success and am quite pleased!

I FINISHED A PROJECT !!!

Project name: Ghoul School
Pattern: Sock Recipe: A Good, Plain Sock
Yarn: GnomeAcres Sparkle Gnome Fingering/Sock in “Smell My Feet”
(You can find Gnome Acres shop HERE)
Needles: Size 2 (2.75 mm) Double Points
Start Date: August 25 2013
Finished: July 6 2014

So much went wrong with these socks - honestly I am just happy to have them done.

♦ Lost notes for Sock one - so had to largely eye ball sock two. YIKES.
♦ I kneeled on one of my needles - so I had to knit a large portion of sock two with one bent needle.
(see the bent needle there? It felt WEIRD to knit every round with one needle bent!)

♦ The yarn on sock two started to feel brittle about two inches past the heel. My feeling is that it was over-dyed and I am a little concerned it will wear poorly.
♦ I forgot I did eye of partridge heel on sock 1 - and did a standard heel on sock 2. Yup - these socks have two different heels. Nice.

♦ The pooling on sock one is vastly different from the pooling on sock two. Is it because I knit these over a year? Is it the yarn? Is it my heel snafu? No idea.

And the fit is just a tiny bit looser than I like.Which is a bummer as I actually did a swatch and did math to get the right fit - debated the needle size and then let the math decide to go with a 2 rather than a 1. If I knit these again in this yarn I would probably use a size 1 needle just to get a bit snugger fit.

I am not in love with these - but have a sense of relief that they are off the needles and finally completed. I wanted a pair of fun socks for fall and Halloween - and I think these fit the bill.

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.

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!

Rainbow! Rainbow!

Project Name: Rainbow! Rainbow!
Pattern Name: AfterThought Heel Socks by Laura Linneman
Yarn: Knit Picks Felici Sport Self Striping 1.4 skeins = 229.6 yards (209.9m)
Needle: US 2 - 2.75 mm (double points and a circular for the heel and toe)
Size: Knit the smaller size and fits my US 7.5 foot
Love: ♥♥♥♥♥

You can find my Ravelry Project Notes HERE.

I finished my Rainbow! Rainbow! socks in JUST under a month. I love them like crazy!

The pattern was easy enough to follow for a newbie sock knitter to have wonderful success. The video links in the pattern really helped me work through the picking up stitches and the afterthought heel was very easy to do. I love that the stripes don't match. It makes me happy to look down and see a different pattern on each foot.

I am sad that this yarn was discontinued. It was a little splity, but overall a joy to work with. Happily I have a stash of this yarn, and I know I get 8 stitches per inch on size 2 needles, so I can work with this stitch knowing my gauge pretty well.

So happy with this project and pleased to have finished a knitting project! It's been too long!

http://tamisamis.blogspot.com/

Finished my first pair of socks!

 

I finally finished my first pair of socks! I thought I would start with a pattern aimed at beginners, so these were knit with size 7 double points from cuff to toe with worsted weight yarn. These took me months to make as I ran screaming from the first one after I turned the heal. It was painful and not very pretty. And honestly - the pattern was not written for a beginner learning on there own. It was written to hand out to a beginner as a class was being taught. (I have and will continue to complain bitterly about paying $7.00 for this pattern!)

I feel like these are "Bed Socks" vs wearing out socks. They are loose and just feel like more of a slipper than a sock. I think if I wear them at night and in the mornings when the wood floors feel cold to my toes I will get a lot more use out of them.

I am happy to have gone through the process, and by knitting these in worsted I didn't worry about mistakes as much. I did much frogging and some starting over while I tried to figure out the pattern and how to pick up stitches, etc... I will definitely make more socks!

My Ravelry notes and more pictures of my socks can be found on my Ravelry page HERE.

Number 15 in Mulberry

Project Name: Number 15 in Mulberry
Pattern Name: This is pattern #15 from The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs by Linda P. Schapper
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Mulberry Merino 2 skeins = 198.0 yards (181.1m) in color 8783
Hook: 6.0 mm (J)
Size: 6" x 64"
Love: ♥♥♥♥♥

You can find my Ravelry Project Notes HERE.

More stash busting. More experimenting with stitches from my crochet stitch dictionary.

I had never worked with this yarn before, and although it's SUPER EVIL to rip out, I love how it worked up in this stitch. It's really soft and squishy.

The pattern was addictive to work. I found myself working on it all the time. You can go miles in no time. Very happy with the results!

Number 3 in Pomaire

Project Name:  Number 3 in Pomaire
Pattern Name: This is pattern #3 from The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs by Linda P. Schapper
Yarn: Araucania Pomaire Multy,1 skeins = 183.0 yards (167.3m) in colorway 4
Hook:  5.0 mm (H)
Size:  5.5" x 60"
Love: ♥♥♥♥♥
 
You can find my Ravelry Project Notes HERE.

This was a really fun crochet stitch and I had a hard time setting it down. It looks really nice and once you get going it's just go go go! Great stash buster of a single skein I had rolling around. I had never worked with this yarn before and I have to say I am a fan! I will use it again. I think a throw in this yarn in this pattern would be quite awesome. One of those nice summer throws for the couch when you just need a little warmth. I wore this all day at work and am still wearing it right now while I type this up. It's really soft and non scratchy - feels nice after months of wool against my skin.

Really enjoying learning new crochet stitches and busting stash!

Number 2 in Rosewood

Project Name: Number 2 in Rosewood
Pattern Name: This is pattern #2 from The Complete Book of Crochet Stitch Designs by Linda P. Schapper
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool Merino in the color Rosewood, 1 skeins = 223.0 yards (203.9m)
Hook: 5.0 mm (H)
Size: 5 inches by 48 inches
Love: ♥♥♥♥

You can find my Ravelry Project Notes HERE.

I finally have a finished project and thought this would be a good chance to get back into blogging! I took a bit of a break there while I finished studying for, taking and PASSING my A+ certification exams. Yup. I am now officially A+ certified! Yay me!

So I have been starting a ton of projects, and finally finished SOMETHING. I picked up this book...

and have been slowly teaching myself some new crochet stitches. I have to admit, as a knitter I find the language and the pattern writing of crochet books (patterns, etc...) a little baffling. So I started on pattern 2, which is really simple. You pretty much just cast on an even amount of stitches and then you single crochet twice in every other stitch. Easy peasy. I grabbed a ball of yarn out of my stash and went to town.

The scarf worked up quickly, was portable and I like how the yarn worked up in this pattern. Bonus that this was a loan ball of yarn that was just hanging out in my stash for years and is now GONE. Yay!

I really like the idea of working all the odd balls of yarn out of my stash while learning some new crochet skills. Win win!

And the photo with Emma on the deck modeling the scarf was taken just minutes ago. We really have that much snow left. It's just disgusting. Winter will not go away.

Another Sheep(ish) Hooker

Project Name: Another Sheep(ish) Hooker
Pattern Name: n/a (Just Double Crochet)
Yarn: Caron Vickie Howell Sheep(ish) 2 skeins = 334.0 yards (305.4m) in Magenta(ish)
Hook: 10.0 (N) hook
Size: 72 inches x 5.5 inches
Love: ♥♥♥♥

You can find my Ravelry Project Notes HERE.

More stash busting and lunchtime crocheting. I held two strands of this yarn together and chained 12 stitches, then worked double crochet until I ran out of yarn. The last one I made was really warm and I found myself wearing it all the time. (January in Minnesota = Lots of knitwear!) Very pleased with this. It worked up fast and even though it's a holey stitch the scarf is still very warm. Can't wait to wear this!

Sort of Afghan

Project Name: Sort Of Afghan
Pattern Name: Stratford Circle Afghan by Lion Brand Yarn
Yarn: Patons Rumor 5 skeins = 420.0 yards (384.0m) in Colorway Hibiscus Heather

Hook: 8.0 mm (L)
Size: About three feet across - Lap blanket size
Love: ♥♥♥ - Medium Love. I like the pattern - but I needed A LOT more size for this to be useful for humans

You can find my Ravelry Project Notes HERE.

This was a stash buster for me. I had these 5 skeins of Rumor yarn in my stash and I wanted something different to work on at lunch - and this is what that turned into.

They no longer make this yarn so I couldn't order more to add to the size of this. It was a bit splitty and shed A LOT, but it also hid my oops well because is was a furry yarn. (Part Alpaca!) It also kept my lap very warm while I worked on it. Nice since it has been bitter cold here for the last week.

I intend for this to be used for my Cat Izzi in her cat bed. She has bad knee's so we have a pet heating pad in the top bed of her Kitty Tower, and she loves it when we put a blanket over her and she can curl up in the warmth. This will be a better size than a human afghan and will look a little better too!

I really liked this pattern. It was free from Lion Brand.com and it was a great beginner pattern for a crochet blanket.

Plomo Shmomo - Another Cowl!

Project Name: Plomo Shmomo
Pattern Name: Improvised (Just a seed stitch)
Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn: Rasta in 43 Plomo (1 Skein = 90 Yards)
Needle: US 15 - 10.0 mm
Size: Unblocked size = 7 inches deep with a 27 inch circumference.
Love:  ♥♥♥♥♥ Full love on this one!

Find my Ravelry Pattern notes HERE.

I LOVE this cowl. It's hard not to Love all things Malabrigo. And Rasta is one of my favorite yarns. Fat and happy - it knits up quick and it makes your fingers happy to have them rubbing on it with every stitch.  Even Emma giver her approval on this. Two Paws up!

The yarn for this was a gift from my hubby. He went to a Historical Society Event and came home with a ball of Rasta for me. I told him I would take that over flowers any day!

Fall Borealis Mittens

FINALLY these are done! I had a false start and had to rip them out completely, but now they are finished!

The Pattern: Woodhaven. This is a free pattern form Berroco yarns.
The Yarn: I used Berroco Borealis yarn. Even with my yarn eating modifications I used less than one skein. A very pretty yarn and fun to work with.
My Mods: I knit the cuffs 4.5 inches in length rather than 3 inches in length. I wanted a nice long cuff to fit under my jacket. Anyone who has had to remove snow from a car knows a long cuff is a good thing.

If I made these again I would add a few rows of knit stitch between the ribbing and the thumb. The directions call for only one row of knit before you start the thumb up and that ends up with the ribbing not stopping at your natural wrist - rather it is up on your hand. I would like more of a transition there.

I would also add a little more length to the thumb. The pattern does not have you pick up any stitches from the body of the mitten when you make the thumb - and this leaves a pretty nice size hole in the area I call the thumb crotch. (I put picture of the hole in the "thumb crotch" up on my Ravelry Project Page here if you want to take a look and see what I mean.) When I went to stitch the hole closed it really pulled a lot on the thumb and made it tighter. I think a row or two more added to the length would help this out.

Over all not a bad free project. I am thinking about making them again to use as a liner for some of my super bulky mittens that are a little over sized for me. It would be great for that I think. I am in love with this yarn - Hope it wears well!

Hooking Away!

We have a guest dog in the house this weekend. We are pet sitting my MIL's dog Minnie. She is just a ball of energy and she has been wearing us all out, but in a good way. Above you will see I was trying to crochet a little blanket for my cat while Minnie climbed all over me trying to see what was going on outside. Emma of course was calm and just hanging out.

 

Once the blanket was finished I placed it in Izzi's cat bed and she immediately curled up and went to sleep on it! She loves it and I was so happy. So often with pet knitwear (crochet wear?) I feel like you knit it for yourself - since he animal tends to not care one way or another. So to have Miss Izzi claim an item I knit for her was pretty wonderful.

Since her cat house has two beds I quickly made another one for her other bed as well. This is not the bed she spends as much time in, but I had the yarn and thought "Why not?".

 

I suspect she will love snuggling into both of these once Winter rolls in. As it is now still summer temperatures, she isn't getting the full affect I think.



i said a knit knot the knitty the knitty to the knitknit knot

 

I finished a little shawlette! It's the "Just Knit it!" pattern on Ravelry by Susan Ashcroft of Stitchnerd Designs. It was given out free during the Olympics and is now a pay pattern. Super cute. Super easy. And I got to stashbust on this (mostly) which is super awesome!

 

I knit this out of mochi and Sheep(ish). For the edge I ended up doing a row of single crochet all the way around the entire thing in gray. Then I went down to the lower two sides (not the neck side) and did a row of double crochet all the way across in the mochi (colored) yarn. I was going to go back and frame it all in with gray again - but I loved how it looked as is - so I stopped.

It is the perfect length and width. I can use it to wrap around my shoulders if I am wearing a dress - or wrap it around my neck like Emma is wearing it below with a jacket in the winter for super snowy day warmth. The mochi and the sheep(ish) went together like a dream and it is just squishy and so warm! I really enjoyed working on it!

 



Nice to have a WIP out of my Queue on Ravelry. I have had start-itis lately. Like RAGING start-itis. It's been killer. I am bored with items I have started already and want to do something New and exciting! Fickle knitter am I! So yay for getting something finished! Now on to the next!