Seven Swans a-Swimming

On the seventh day of Christmas,

my true love sent to me

Seven swans a-swimming,

Six geese a-laying,

Five golden rings,

Four calling birds,

Three French hens,

Two turtle doves,

And a partridge in a pear tree.

And me? A UFO was finished during the Twelve Days of Christmas!

The Mad Color Weave socks are quite possibly my all-time favorite socks. The Lorna Laces Shepherd Sport, being a thicker yarn than fingering weight, enabled these socks to knit up quickly. They are soft and squishy, too!

I utilized a new knitting technique. I learned how to do the eight-row weave pattern without using a cable needle. The weave pattern seemed to eliminate the 'pooling' issue that Lorna Lace yarns so often have. The heel was different from any I've ever knit before. It was a stockinette heel with a cable down either side. If I were to make any modifications to the pattern, I would probably replace the twisted cable going down either side of the center weave pattern with a baby cable as Pat did. Other that that, the patter is perfect!


Pattern: Mad Color Weave by Tina Lorin

Yarn: 1.5 skeins Lorna Laces Shepherd Sport in the Huron colorway

Needles: 2.75mm Lantern Moon dpns

Size: 58 stitches

Sockdown: November!

I tried to knit TOE UP SOCKS for the November Sockdown Ravelry. Really, I did. Unfortunately, I just did not enjoy the process and decided that knitting socks this way was just not for me! So, my Kaffe Fassett yarn is in the process of being knit into some plain vanilla socks and I've cast on with different yarn for the November Sockdown Ravelry challenge. Taking on the challenge of knitting a slip-stitch pattern, I chose the MAD COLOR WEAVE pattern by Tina Lorin.

After choosing the pattern, I happened to be reading blogs and saw Pat's beautiful version using Lorna Laces Sportweight. She told me they knit up pretty quickly on 2.75mm needles so I thought that would help me with the time crunch!

I had a bit leftover from my Baby Surprise Jacket and will order another skein. This yarn is wonderfully soft!

Sockdown OCTOBER and NOVEMBER

What's this? TWO tales of the Sock Knitters Anonymous Challenges going untold? With my recent sweater obsession my socks have gone neglected and unfinished. The November Sockdown Ravelry Challenge is underway and I still have not finished the challenge from October! And, I might as well confess that my pair of October Mystery socks have gusset stitches to be picked up! I really need to get all three pairs finished this by the end of the month. Fortunately, I will have a road trip to Texas in a couple weeks with lots of time to knit in the car.


The October sock challenge was to pick a Stephanie van der Linden pattern. This is a new designer for me. The minute I saw the Lizzy pattern I thought of my daughter Jennifer and knew the socks would be destined for her feet. I'm not sure if it was the celtic lace knotwork or the 'whiteness' of the legs on the model. Or perhaps it was because the sock on the model was knit in her favorite color, blue, and I remembered some blue yarn I had bought for her when I first started knitting. Whatever it was....these Lizzy socks will be for Jen-Jen.

Pattern: Lizzy by Stephanie van der Linden
Yarn: Brownsheep Wildfoote in Peasant Blue
Needles: 2.25mm

The Loopy Ewe had a sale on Regia yarn last weekend and I jumped at the opportunity to purchase some Kaffe Fasset yarn. I always love his colors and this 'Canyon' colorway is no exception. Isn't it lovely?

Because I did not want to obscure the colors I decided this needed to be a plain vanilla sock. Then, I remembered that Wendy D. Johnson was one of the designers we could choose for the November Sockdown Ravelry. Having read her blog for several years, I knew Wendy to be a a toe-up girl so I picked one of her basic toe-up patterns. This one will have a gusset.

Here is the start of a toe! It is always exciting to learn something new, isn't it? BTW, did I mention that I started the My First Toe Ups group several Socktoberfests ago to learn how to knit toe-ups? That blog isn't very active anymore because we have a group on Ravelry. With the hustle and bustle of managing the participants, I never learned.

Now I have a question for YOU - which method do YOU prefer? Cuff down or toe up? If you are a toe-up fan can you tell me why you prefer this method?

Cast Off September Sockdown

The Marilinda socks for the September Sockdown on Ravelry has been finished for over a week. Although I love the finished sock, knitting teensy cables on teensy size 0 needles was quite time consuming.

As usual, this was another brilliant pattern written by Cookie A!

• YARN - Inspiration , a gift from Eva
  
• PATTERN - Marilinda by Cookie A.
• NEEDLE SIZE - 2.0mm Knitpicks dpn
  

Autumn

Autumn is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year. Although I am not really a morning person, I enjoy rising earlier to watch the sun rise in the east over Pikes Peak. And then as the sun gradually reaches my property, I enjoy seeing the colors of the grass come to life.
The colors are so glorious during Autumn, one final huzzah before the snow starts to fly. It won't be long now. Our thermometer is dipping into the thirties at night and there is snow on Pikes Peak. The aspen are starting to turn and I hope to show you pictures soon.
When autumn comes my hands itch to knit patterns rich in cables. I don't know why that is but it happens to me every year. I knew this September would be no different and that is why I chose the Marilinda sock for the Ravelry September Socktown challenge.

The burnt orange color is a perfect Fall colorway. Some people like the colors of spring but the rich golds, browns and oranges of fall are my color preferences.

And isn't it pretty cool the way the pattern continues down the heel on this sock? Cookie A. is brilliant!

Cast On September Sockdown

I'm knitting the MARILINDA sock pattern by Cookie A. for the September Sockdown challenge.
With triple wraps, triple wrap decreases , cable increases and decreases and other complicated stitches, I am s-l-o-w-l-y making progress.

I sometimes wonder if this is just a little bit too complex for socks. They are, after all, worn on my feet and hardly anyone looks at my feet. But in the afterglow of finishing a challenging pattern I know I will be thinking differently.

My sock drawer is full of handknit socks and so I feel I have finally reached the point where I can be a little discriminating in my pattern choice. Of course, I vacillate from feeling like this to feeling like my favorite socks, the ones I always pull out of the drawer first, are the plain vanilla ones.

At any rate, this is an enjoyable pattern despite the fact that it is not exactly the most relaxing of patterns. I'm glad I have the whole month of September to finish them for I am most certain they will take three times as long as the plain vanillas............

These socks will also count for the September Solid Socks KAL (orange).

Sockdown: September!

The Sock Knitter's Anonymous Challenge for September 2008 is to knit a pair of socks using any pattern of your choice and yarn that is at least 75% ORANGE OR any pattern designed by Cookie A OR a Mystery sock designed by Jeanie Fanihi and knit in yarn that is at least 75% orange.

Since we are at the start of football season, I am going to knit some Denver Bronco socks using stashed Opal Magic yarn. These will be knit using my standard plain vanilla sock pattern.

But the real fun will begin when I pull out my new Cookie A. pattern and scrumptious yarn that Eva gifted to me during Monkey Sock Swap FOUR. I'll be knitting Marilinda, a very lovely sock featuring cables and lace twisting all the way down the heel. I can't wait to get engrossed in this pattern.

So what do you think? Is this yarn orange enough to qualify for the September Sockdown Challenge? A new year of challenges is starting in September so if you missed out on the fun last year then come join us on Ravelry!

Cast-On ~ May Sockdown

The May challenge for Sockdown Ravelry is to knit a fair-isle pattern. It was difficult narrowing down a pattern but I finally decided on the Windowpane Socks in the summer Interweave Knits magazine. The pattern is designed by Chrissy Gardiner.

I received this lovely Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn from my daughter for Christmas. The colorway is one I had requested, Fall Foliage. It was much brighter than I thought it would be. I believe the bright colors will be toned down significantly by knitting it alongside the charcoal gray yarn. At least, I hope the colors will be toned down! I'm no stranger to knitting fair isle patterns; however, knitting fair-isle with double point needles is something I have not yet tried. I knit with both hands typically carrying the background color in my right hand. Having to reposition the thread at the end of each teeny dpn is making my fingers tire sooner than they would have had this been a fair isle sweater. I keep telling myself to persevere for I really love Chrissy's pattern and think these will look great!

Cast-Off - April Sockdown

I finished my April Ravelry Sockdown Challenge the first day out to sea. Most of the knitting was done on the plane trip down to Ft. Lauderdale. I had finished the first sock prior to leaving. I took my bright pink sock bag with me all over the ship and everytime we went to the Princess Theatre to wait for entertainment to begin or to wait for a movie to start I had a sock to work on. (Note to self: next time don't bring a bright pink sock bag, bring something that looks like less inconspicuous). Knitting socks attracted much positive attention from fellow shipmates who were fascinated. I met a few ladies who had knit Red Cross Socks during WWII - imagine that! And, I sat next to a lady one night who used to knit argyle socks for her men many years ago.

Isn't it always a pleasant surprise to discover that knitting transcends generational barriers, political barriers, religious barriers and race barriers? It warms my heart that our love of knitting bonds us despite all our other differences. Taking photographs when at sea posed a bit of a challenge for me. The ship was in a continuously state of motion and even in the calmest stretches there were still vibrations. Consequently, the following photo shots are blurred a bit - sorry about that!

Pattern: Cascading Leaves by Jeanie Townsend

Yarn: Shibui Knits in Wasabi

Needle Size: 2.25 HiyaHiya circulars

Modifications: none

I discovered something new about the naming of this sock color one night as I was in a buffet dinner line. There was a bowl of bright green sauce the very same color as my socks and it was labeled 'Wasabi'. I asked the chef to explain to me what wasabi was and he informed me that it was similar to horseradish sauce. Isn't that a hoot? I'm sure the people around me were astounded by my excitement over a sauce!

Cast-On ~ April Sockdown

The April Sockdown challenge on Ravelry is to knit a pattern by Jeanie Townsend. I had not heard of this designer before now but learned she has a Yahoo Sock Knitting group. After joining the group I discovered she has designed many beautiful socks. The sock I have selected is called Cascading Leaves.

In keeping with the current Project Spectrum colors I selected a lovely Shibui yarn in green. I then went to Ravelry to see all the socks knit with this yarn and discovered that it does have some issues with pooling. I'm hoping that this sock pattern will camoflauge it some. You can see the pooling already in my cast on stitches. I guess I will just have to imagine that it is sunshine shining through on my cascading leaves :-)

Cast-Off February Sock

A few of you have reminded me that I never posted about my completed Kaffe Fasset sock for the February Sockdown on Ravelry.

We were challenged to try a new heel. I choose the Eye of Partridge heel and then ended up making my own modifications so the brilliant Kaffe Fasset colors would ‘pop’ more. BTW, I love, love, love this Regia Kaffe Fasset line! I want to collect all of the dyelots. I knit this pair of socks very quickly because I couldn’t wait to see the next color unfold.

Popping Eye of Partridge Heel (even # sts)
Row 1: Sl 1 purlwise, *k 1, sl 1 knitwise,* repeat from * to * end.

Row 2: Sl 1 purlwise, p to last stitch, k 1.

Row 3: Sl 1 purlwise, sl 1 knitwise, *k 1, sl 1 knitwise,* repeat from * to * last 2 sts, k to end.

Row 4: Repeat Row 2Repeat these rows till heel flap is about 2 1/2 in or desired length.

This is definitely my new favorite heel flap! I really like how it looks and will try to incorporate it into my upcoming socks.

Cast Off - January Sockdown

I finished my challenge socks for the January Sockdown Ravelry. Fortunately, they only had to be cast on in January and not actually finished until the end of February. I started them January 26th and finished them February 10th.



PATTERN: BFF Socks by Cookie A.
YARN: Koigu Premium Merino (31655)
NEEDLES: 2.25mm

This pattern was an interesting one to knit and I learned something new - how to do a cable decrease/cable increase. I’m a little disappointed in the fit. I initially frogged one complete sock because I used 2.5mm needles and the resulting sock was too baggy. I thought the cause was the needle size so, accordingly, I went down to a 2.25mm and knit these two socks. The fit is slightly better but still not great.

The pattern increases stitches after the ribbed cuff to accomodate all the cables. It then decreases down at the heel for fewer stitches on the heel/foot. 72sts around my ankle is just too much and it causes the ankle to bag some.

My Conclusion: This is a nice pattern which offers three sizes. I should have gone with the smallest size rather than the medium size.