Baudelaire Socks

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Deborah Cooke

More socks from me. I guess they give me a fresh footing for the new year.The pattern is Baudelaire, which is a free pattern on Knitty by Cookie A. I’ve knit this pattern a couple of times before, but I’ve always given the resulting socks away. Even though I’m a very generous person (!) I’m not usually so generous with handknit lace socks. Those earlier socks didn’t fit me. I gave them to people with bigger feet. There. I’ve confessed. I finally learned that you start the heel for toe-up socks when the work reaches the front of the ankle bone. I did that this time, and these fit perfectly.

Which means they’re MINE!

The yarn is Viola Sock, from a handpainter whose website is Viola and the Moon. My crummy photograph doesn’t begin to do justice to her artistry. There are (roughly) zillions of purple and blue hues in this yarn and little flicks of colour, too – like hot pink. It doesn’t want to pool at all. It’s scrumptious.

These socks stalled last spring because I became so inspired by the yarn that I decided I wanted to make knee socks. (Why do I love knee socks so much? I can’t explain it.) I only had one skein, which wasn’t enough. The store was sold out of what they’d had when I bought the skein, so I contacted the designer. She didn’t have any more either, but – after warning me about dye lots – she dyed me another skein. It was and is just as scrumptious as the first, but it is also much more blue. Hmm. I tried to blend the dye lots with alternating rows, but no matter what I did, I ended up with stripes around the calves. Not good. So (big sigh) after letting them gather dust for a few months, in December I frogged back and knit regular socks instead of knee socks.

The good news is, though, that I still have a whole new skein of Viola Sock to knit another pair of socks! I also have an idea that I’ll make stripey knee socks with it. (This is very good news.)

Kidsilk Haze Bedsocks

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

There is a book, pretty much a perfect book for Kidsilk Haze addicts like yours truly, called Silky Little Knits. It’s by Alison Crowther-Smith. In the UK, the book was called Little Luxury Knits, but the content is the same.

There are lots of yummy projects knitted with KSH in this book, but the most interesting thing to me is a technique Ms. C-S presents called colourwashing. What she does here is blend different colours of KSH to gradually change from one colour to the next. Sadly, I can’t find any pix of this out in the big wide world, but if you are on Ravelry (and you can be, because it’s free) you can see examples here in her Colourwash Mittens and Colourwash Cushion.

This book also has a pattern for bedsocks knit of KSH held double. I have fantasized about having socks knit of KSH since reading this pattern, and since I live in a cold place, I have the perfect justification for more socks. Recently, I had a rummage through my leftover bits of KSH, determined to knit bedsocks and to knit them in a colourwash kind of way.

I found a bit of KSH in Candygirl, a bit of KSH in Splendour (both leftover from these gloves), a nearly full ball of Elann Silken Kydd in Raspberry Wine (this is a copy of KSH, ordered for fingering purposes, and actually is only a teensy bit darker than KSH Splendour), a full ball of KSH in Blackcurrant (the “bad match” for the yarn crisis associated with the Lady’s Circular Cape) and a nearly full ball of Elann Silken Kydd in Sapphire.

I didn’t follow her sock recipe, just used my own. I’m lazy like that.

So, I cast on with two strands of Candy Girl held together, then worked 8 rows in stockinette. (Her bedsocks have a ruffle, which is adorable, but I decided to just let my cuffs roll instead.) Then I held one strand of Candy Girl together with one strand of Splendour, and knit 8 rows. Next I used two strands of Splendour together for 8 rows and somewhere in here, I started to knit ribbing – 3×3 simply because there were 18 stitches on each needle and that was easy math. Next, one strand of Splendour and one of Raspberry Wine – these colours are pretty close, so the effect is lost a bit. I knit four rows with two strands of Raspberry Wine, then turned the heel, then knit four rows more.

After that, 8 rows with a strand of Blackcurrant and a strand of Raspberry Wine, 8 rows with two strands of Blackcurrant, Blackcurrant with Sapphire, then Sapphire held double. Then I reversed the colour sequence, hoping it would work out well. I got all the way through the sequence again and had one little snippet of Candygirl which I used on the toe. (Even a meter of KSH is too much to waste.)

Here’s the first one!

The colours appear a bit more emphatic here – because of the flash – than they do in real life. That blend down the length of the foot is really just all a wonderful blue purple mush, and it is almost impossible IRL to see the distinction between the Splendour and the Raspberry Wine, which looks obvious in the shot.

I had been seriously tempted to dig into my non-scraps of KSH. There are three full balls of navy in my stash, which would have made for a nice transition between the Blackcurrant and the Sapphire, also two full balls of another medium blue (Hurricane) and I could have poached some turquoisey Trance from the Lace Jacket still on the needles. I decided to be tough, though, and am glad I was. The Blackcurrant and the Sapphire made navy music on their own when they danced a duet, and I like that the colour sequence went there and back again once.

These are divinely cushy, soft and warm. I can’t wait to get the second one off the needles and feel pampered!

Socks in Gedifro Sportivo

Posted on November 23, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

Today I have a new pair of socks. Having a new pair of handknit socks in November is such a wonderful thing that it’s impossible to blog about anything else.

Here they are:The flash, as usual, has really lightened the colour. These are much darker in real life, and they look like they match better. It’s my usual ribbed pattern that I kind of modify as I go. The yarn is Gedifra Sportivo, which I bought years ago because I thought this was a Dragonfire colourway. I still think that – and now, it’ll keep my toes toasty warm too.

Have you gotten or knit any nifty socks lately?

SuperSocke Wellness Socks

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

I finished these socks.They’re knit of a self-striping yarn called Online SuperSocke Wellness II. The “wellness” bit is presumably because the yarn has jojoba and aloe vera added to it. (?) I’m not really sure how that doesn’t wash out, but it does make the yarn nice to knit with. It’s a pretty thick sock yarn, so these are warm socks. I just used my usual system for making socks, which is more of a method than a pattern.

One thing that surprised me was the way it striped. I’d thought from looking at the ball that the colour changes would be more gradual. But they look good and I had enough to make them match. There’s a good bit left, so I could have even made a pair for Mr. C. and had them match. This is good, as I have two more balls of this stuff in different colourways.

What do you think? Have you finished any projects lately?

Regia Socks

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

These are Mr. C’s new socks. Just plain socks, nothing fancy, but I like them and so does he.The yarn is 4-ply Regia sock yarn, in one of Kaffe Fassett’s colourways. I thought this would stripe, but each colourway comes in two versions: “Landscape” stripes and “Mirage” does this flicky thing. This wool is a Mirage colourway.

What do you think?

Chevalier Socks

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

Things have been a bit wild around here lately, but I have been knitting. (It is a sanity preserver!) I think a couple of things might get frogged for gauge and fit issues – phooey – but these socks are getting done.

I love them. Fortunately, so does Mr. C. who will get to wear them.

The pattern is by Mari Muinonen and is called Chevalier (This is the Ravelry link, which might not be visible to the world at large.) The pattern is free for download on Ravelry and there’s a matching Chevalier pattern for mittens. Mari’s blog is called MadebyMyself, but a lot of the content is in Finnish.You can look at the pictures, though – she’s an incredibly talented designer. (She seduced me utterly with her pattern directions for these socks. It says “Pattern of the Chevalier Socks is written both english and finnish in the same file. Try to manage.”)

The yarn is Briggs & Little Tuffy, which Mr. C. loves for his house socks, and which is spun in New Brunswick. The colourway is Greystone. It’s actually kind of green.The bonus of using such thick yarn is that the socks knit up super-fast.

Here’s the first sock. Don’t you love it?A bit of a blurry shot because I had to do it without the flash to show the cables better. Also, the colour looks more blue here than it really is.

I made some modifications. I knit 24 rows of ribbing before starting the cable stuff, while the pattern specifies 10 rows. And I fiddled with the toe so that there’s a whole diamond ending there, instead of just cropping it off and doing a regular toe. Since these won’t be worn under boots, cabling on the top of the toe isn’t going to be an issue.

What do you think?

My Bright Socks

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

Here’s one of a pair of socks I’m just finishing.First, let’s talk about the yarn. It’s a sock blank from Knit Picks that I dyed myself. A sock blank is a machine-knit rectangle, which is knit of two strands of sock yarn together. The idea is that you paint or dye it, then knit your socks two at a time with the magic loop method. I gave this a valiant effort but I didn’t enjoy it – instead I unwound the sock blank, separated the strands, balled the yarn and knit them one at a time, the way I always do.

I painted my sock blank in a rainbow gradient. The plan was to start with yellow, then proceed through orange, red, purple, blue and end with green. I had three primary colours of acid dye – yellow, red and blue – but found that they didn’t make such great secondary colours. The orange isn’t bad, but the purple isn’t at all what I wanted. I knit the sock so that the green didn’t even end up being used. That’s how much I disliked it. I put black dots on the sock blank in a regular pattern with an eyedropper – they spread into great blotches instead of remaining nice neat dots. I like how they knit up, though, making ziggles all over the socks.

In hindsight, I kind of like the purpley bits. They aren’t the intense deep purple I envisioned here, but their silvery tone is nice. I may try to find that dye blend again, with another skein of yarn.

The pattern is called Arch Shaped Socks, and you can download the pdf of the pattern HERE. (I’m hoping this is a page that can be viewed by the world at large, but if not, you can always create a free Ravelry account to see it. The pattern is actually resident on another server.) The original pattern has only a ribbed cuff, and the rest of the sock is worked in stockinette. I ribbed mine all the way down to the toe, inspired by the projects of several other Ravellers. The original knitter who ribbed the foot goes by the Ravelry name of Wireless. I think the sock looks really cool with this extra ribbing. My leg length is a bit random – I chose to turn the heel just after the red began. My hope was that there would be enough red of pretty much the same colour that I wouldn’t end up with a line when I started to work in the round again. It worked!

I’m really happy with these socks and can’t wait to finish the second toe.

Have you knit anything lately that made you really happy? Or done something that you thought was huge fun?

Thick Winter Socks

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

These are the socks I finished most recently. My husband put them on as soon as they came off the needles!

The yarn is my favourite for hard-wearing warm socks. It’s called Tuffy and is from Briggs & Little, a mill in the Maritimes. This marl – one ply off-white and one ply grey – is called Granite. I had some Tuffy in Red Mix left from another pair of socks, so put it on the cuffs and toes. Although there are a few yarn stores local to me that carry B&L yarn, they don’t tend to have all of the colours – or the colours I want. What is nice is that you can order B&L yarns directly from the mill, even if you aren’t a wholesale customer. They just charge you the postage and pop it into the mail.

The pattern is from an old Patons book, although it’s been included in many other Patons books since. It’s called Ribbed Sports Socks. I followed the pattern, except I changed to 3×1 ribbing after my striped cuff. The pattern has most of the sock knit in 1×1 ribbing.

I like them. He loved them! What do you think?

Socks and Tension

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Deborah Cooke

This is just weird.

I knit half of a sock on my trip to RWA National, working on it in airports and on airplanes. I used my short Brittany birch needles, because airport security people don’t take those away. When I got home, I switched back to my longer metal DPN’s which are exactly the same size (2.5mm) and finished the sock. So far, so good.

When I cast on the other sock at home, I thought I’d just use the metal ones. They are my faves. I zipped through the ribbing, only to discover that it was half an inch shorter, even though it had the same number of rows. Evidently, I knit more loosely on wood needles. Who knew?

So, I frogged it back, cast on again on the wooden needles, and reknit the cuff. I figured I’d knit to the heel flap with the wooden needles, then switch to the metal, just as I had done for the first sock. That way, they’d match, right?

No. Evidently I also knit more loosely in airports. How bizarre is that?! See? The right – in process – sock is narrower, especially in the ribbing.

It makes no sense because I’m always somewhat disheveled about traveling – which I’d think would make me knit more tightly – plus it’s colder in airports than in my house in the summer. Again, I’d think that would tighten the work. But no. I had to knit three extra rows for the leg to be the same length as that of the finished sock. It’s not a huge difference, but I’m amazed that there’s any difference at all.

I am, in fact, mystified.

The yarn, for those of you who care about such things, is Patons Kroy FX in the colourway Clover Colors. I quite like this yarn. It has one more ply than regular Kroy which makes it thick. It feels wooly and warm. I’m even resigned to the fact that you can’t match the stripes at all – because all four plies have a gradual colour change, I don’t think there even are repeats in the colourway. What doesn’t thrill me is that the two balls look as if they are from different dye lots, even though they’re not – the right one has a lot more orange in it. And I’m not thrilled by the yardage – there are 152m in a ball, and yes, I had to join another ball to make the toe on the first sock. I think a 50g ball of yarn should make one woman’s sock – if not, make it a 55g ball – but that’s just me. Next time, I’ll knit the legs an inch shorter than my usual 8″ and it should work out okay.

But still, I’ve only ever had gauge issues over long periods of time – as in, picking up a UFO after years and not having my gauge match because my knitting has changed over that time. Over a week or two is something entirely new to me. Have you ever had this kind of gauge issue with your knitting?

Crazy Zauberball Socks

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Deborah Cooke

I finished these a few weeks ago, but forgot to show you. These are knit from a Crazy Zauberball – “crazy” means that it’s the marled sock yarn. Both Crazy Zauberball and Zauberball have long slow gradations of colour.

Here’s what mine looked like when I bought it:

And here are my finished socks:

The LYSO warned me that I wouldn’t be able to match the socks – she knows how matchy matchy I am! – and they don’t match. In fact, I think the first repeat is still to come in the partial ball leftover from my socks, so it wasn’t even possible to make them match. All the same, they do look like they belong together. I like that the light bands on the feet are in roughly the same place and that they both have dark toes.

The colours in this yarn are pretty and it was nice to knit. It’s thinner than I’d realized though – I wish I’d knit my socks on 2.25mm or even 2.0mm needles (instead of 2.5mm) as they seem rather well-ventilated. I washed them before taking this shot and the yarn fuzzed up a bit but didn’t full or shrink. It’s very soft, soft enough to use for baby garments, and it’ll be interesting to see how it wears.

Have you knit any interesting socks yet? Have you tried the Zauberball? What do you think of it?

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