Tag Archives: blue

Socks in Old Patons Kroy

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I have been sorting my stash lately, sending some of it on to find new fans. During that process, I rediscovered some old Patons Kroy. It feels so nice and I love the colour so much that I cast on a pair of socks. I also fell down a rabbit hole…

Kroy sock yarn over time

Patons Kroy is a sock yarn. It’s been available for a long time, so it makes sense that there have been some changes over the years. This Patons Kroy is a 3-ply yarn – it’s the heathered blue one on the left – while the current Patons Kroy Socks (the variegated one on the right) is a 4-ply. The 50g put-up on the old Kroy has 250 m, while the new one has 151m. There was another older 4-ply that had 186m per 50g ball, and it’s a really soft squishy yarn. (It’s in the middle.) I have a bit of that, too. With the old 3-ply, you can get a man’s sock out of one ball; with the new 4-ply, you might run short on even a smaller sock.

I bought this 3-ply Kroy yarn about 30 years ago, in two colours – this seagreen mix and a purple. There was a yarn store on Bloor St. W. in Toronto, close to Spadina Ave. on the north side. I don’t remember the name of it – it’s possible that it was a short-term rental in an empty retail space and had no sign – but it was an outlet store like Spinrite. They sold mill ends by the ounce. It might have been another Spinrite outlet.

At that time, there was a Patons mill in Toronto still. It was on Roselawn Ave. I remember it closing and being developed as condos – it is, in fact, Forest Hill Lofts, which were developed in 2003. (Yes, I had some fun checking out the condos for sale.) Patons had a mill store a little west of there for a bit, on Dufferin near Castlefield, but then closed that as well. There was only the Spinrite factory in Listowel after that, which closed earlier this year.

Socks Socks Socks

I bought the Kroy in two colours to make a pair of entrelac socks, from Socks Socks Socks. (That’s a Ravelry link.) They ultimately frustrated me so much that I frogged them back. (The issue was entirely user error: the pattern called for sport weight yarn, and 3-ply Kroy is a light fingering. I was going to change the stitch counts to make it work, but with entrelac, that was complicated.) The yarn has been loitering in the stash ever since – although I’m not sure where the purple has hidden itself away.

It’s surprising to see that this yarn was made in Canada. The current Kroy is made in Turkey, and has been balled and banded in Canada. I’m not sure what happens now since the Listowel mill is closed. Will the yarn be discontinued? Or will they ball and band in the US? Hard to know and harder to care at this point. Patons is a Canadian company no more so I’ll be knitting from my stash.

Socks by Beehive

The pattern is an old one, from a Beehive book called Socks by Beehive #113. They must have printed a lot of copies of this booklet as they’re pretty easy to find in thrift stores and antique markets. This pattern is Knotty Pines. (Those are both Ravelry links.) I really like this pattern and have made it several times, long before Ravelry (so those socks aren’t listed on my project pages there.)

Looking at the pattern on Rav, I see the recommended yarn is Kroy 3-ply by Lady Galt, which was made by Newlands in Cambridge Ontario. Here’s a blog post I found with a bit about Newlands – and LOL I have that knitting book, too. I remember my grandmother buying Lady Galt yarn at Eatons, a long-closed department store, which is another peek at the past. (I wonder if that Newlands building in Cambridge is condos now, too. Hmm. There are a bunch of them there.)

In the meantime, here’s the first Knotty Pines sock knit in the 3-ply Kroy:

sock knit by Deborah Cooke in Kroy 3-ply sock yarn, in Beehive Socks Knotty Pines pattern

I was planning to knit these for myself, so made the leg shorter than the pattern. The foot, though, ended up being too wide for me (at 76 stitches) so the sock ended up being for the mister. He doesn’t mind that it’s a bit shorter. I’ve started the cuff on the second one – it takes a bit of concentration, since it’s not as regular a ribbing as usual. The bonus is that the ribbing lines up with the pattern once you start it, so it’s worth paying attention for a few rows.

Quilting the Mermaid Quilt

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You might also remember my mermaid quilt, which used some pre-printed panels and coordinating fabrics. This one wasn’t a kit. I just made it up.

It’s been to the long arm quilter, too – the dragons and the mermaids went on that adventure together – and now it’s all finished up as well. Here it is:

Mermaid quilt, assembled by Deborah Cooke, finished

The print was called Mermaid in Blue Jeans, if you’re looking for it. I think it’s so cute. There’s a blog post about piecing this quilt – from 2022! – right here.

When I pieced the top, I really wanted to use that allover print from the border for the backing, but at full price, it would have been pretty expensive. I decided to look for something that coordinated and was cheaper (I needed 6m.) About six months later, I was at my local fabric store and they’d marked down this entire line. I think it was $5 a m. So, I got my 6m and another one too, just because, and was able to make the backing match the front. It’s seamed and I was able to match the print, too. (Ha.)

Again, this was quilted in a meander pattern, also with blue thread.

Quilting the Dragon Quilt

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About five years ago, I had a pandemic project of assembling a quilt kit called In the Beginning. Here’s the finished quilt top from the final post about that project:

In the Beginning Dragon Quilt Kit pieced by Deborah Cooke

And here’s the final blog post about it.

I’d decided that this would be the first quilt that I had quilted by the shop with the long arm machine and took it in there last month. I picked it up and have been sewing on the bias binding – I sewed it to one side by machine, then handstitched it on the back all the way around. This is a big quilt!

In the beginning dragon quilt in blue, assembled by Deborah Cooke, and completed.

The binding is the allover print with the Celtic knots. You can see it more clearly in the detail below.

In the beginning dragon quilt in blue, assembled by Deborah Cooke, and completed, detail

I chose a meander pattern for the quilting and they used a blue thread. It looks really great!

A Knitted Coat for Tyler

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You might remember the knitted coat and hat I made for Barbie, using patterns from Sticka till Barbie. The pattern was #101 Yellow Coat along with the coordinating hat. That post is right here.

I decided to resize the pattern for my 16″ girls, and I think it came out pretty well. I used Koigu KPM and it took almost the entire 50g skein for the coat. Fortunately, I had another skein to make a matching hat.

This is Mosaic Modern Sydney Chase doing the honours today. I wish I had an umbrella to add to this combo. It has a bit of a retro look, and not just because of the shoes. (They are from a shoe pack, which included the pink slingbacks that Tyler is wearing in the picture below this one.)

Knit coat for Tyler Wentworth, knit from Koigu KPM by Deborah Cooke

The Koigu KPM has a kettle-dyed look, which worked out really well for this one. I was afraid a variegated or space-dyed yarn might pool – also Sydney says she can wear it with more things.

If I knit a second one, I might add pockets to the front. I thought of that this time, but wasn’t entirely certain what row they should be on. I’ll mark this one, just at her hand, then count the rows up from the front to know for next time.

I would make them like the pockets in this cardigan – it’s hard to see the line of cast off stitches in each front but have a look. The pocket hangs inside, like a welt pocket without much of a welt. I can just slide the tip of my finger into it.

Cabled cardigan knit by Deborah Cooke for Tyler Wentworth

I also made Sydney a blouse and skirt to wear with this knitted coat. She looks like a librarian to me in this combo, thus the glasses and book.

Top and skirt sewn for Tyler Wentworth by Deborah Cooke

This is the blouse from McCalls 3701 (the same pattern used for the pink one above) which is actually a bodysuit. It’s made of Liberty Tana Lawn. Quite a clever little design, even if the collar is fussy fussy.

McCalls 3701
Fashion Doll Clothing by Rosemarie Ionker

The skirt is drawn from the basic skirt sloper in Rosemarie Ionker’s Fashion Doll Clothing. It’s made of Kaffe Fassett shot cotton and lined with Bemberg rayon.

And two more girls are on their way to me, NRFB and from an estate sale. I’ll show them to you when they arrive. 🙂

A Knitted Coat for Barbie

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Things have been a little quiet here, mostly because of real life. When things get busy and even a little unpredictable, I always choose some comfort knitting. Lately that’s been knitting for the girls, as well as mittens and socks. Today, we’ll look at my latest completed project for the girls.

This is another free pattern from Sticka till Barbie, this time for a knitted coat. It’s amazing that I’m always learning more about fitting clothes for the girls – this time, I learned that vintage Barbies have shorter arms than modern Barbies. MTM and Silkstone (articulated and original) all have longer arms than vintage B.

I knitted the first coat following the instructions for #101 Yellow Coat. Here’s a Ravelry link for the pattern. The original website was taken down in 2022. The wayback machine’s backup of the original site has changed now – previously you could download individual patterns from there. There is also this other backup at the Internet Archive. Scroll down for the link to download a zip file of all the patterns. I’d do this soon, as it seems the content is vanishing. There are so many clever patterns in this collection.

Here’s my first coat in Patons Kroy sock yarn, on a MTM doll.

coat knitted for Barbie in Kroy sock yarn by Deborah Cooke

This coat is knit from the front hem up over the shoulder and down the back. You knit one front, then the other, then join them at the back collar line and knit down the back. The sleeves are added as you go – it’s shaped like a T, kind of like a kimono. Stitches are picked up at the neck for the collar.

This coat took 35g of Patons Kroy – I just barely made it with my partial ball of the red mix, so couldn’t make the hat shown with it in the pattern picture.

I cast on a second version and cast on two less stitches on each sleeve, to make shorter sleeves for vintage B. Here’s that one – this time, I had enough yarn for the hat, too.

coat and hat knitted for Barbie in Kroy sock yarn by Deborah Cooke

The hat is cute and quick to make. I joined mine in the round so there wouldn’t be a seam, although the instructions are to knit it flat. The hat pattern is A-41.

I’m working on a modification of the coat, resizing it for the 16″ girls. I’m knitting it in a kettle-dyed Koigu that is quite pretty. It’s amazing how much more knitting that requires, but I’m headed down the back now and should have it done soon.

Wild Grass Pullover

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Finally, some knitting! I had a sort through my incomplete knitting projects over the holidays and made a plan to get some things finished up. First to jump into my lap is this one, a mostly top-down pullover. The yoke is knit up and cast off at the neck, then the stitches at the bottom of the yoke are picked up to knit the rest down.

Of course, I’ve done the fun part of knitting the yoke, and now there’s just a million miles of stockinette stitch to be finished. This picture is from 2020 and is pretty much where I stopped, right after dividing for the armholes.

Wild Grass Pullover by Asja Janeczek knit in Swans Island Washable Wool by Deborah Cooke

It’s been waiting on me for five years!

The pattern is Wild Grass by Asja Janeczek – here’s a Ravelry link for the pattern. My yarn is Swans Island Washable Wool Collection Sport, which I bought at Swans Island on our trip to Maine a few years ago. Here are the yarns on their website. It looks as if this one has been discontinued or possibly renamed. (?) It’s lovely yarn – the colours are very saturated and it’s very soft and squishy. The teal blue is a bit darker than it appears in this top picture. The fiber is merino wool.

The yarn also has a kettle-dyed look, so I’m alternating between skeins for the body. It will be a bit stripey no matter what I do, but that’s part of the charm of hand-dyed yarn. This is my TV knitting this winter – round and round – and here’s how far I’ve gotten:

Wild Grass pullover in progress, knit by Deborah Cooke

The colour of the blue is more true in this shot. You can see how I changed the ribbing pattern on the neck, so that when it’s folded over, it looks consistent. It’s a 3-1 ribbing, but I wanted the top edge to look like the bottom one when it was folded over. You can see that I reversed the stitching partway up the neck, before the fold, in the top picture.

Here’s how it looks folded over.

Wild Grass pullover in progress, knit by Deborah Cooke

The edge of the turtleneck is a cast-off edge, so I cast off with a larger needle to ensure that it would stretch. I think I’m going to take it back and use a smaller one – right now, it’s a bit frilly, a good sign that I used TOO large of a needle.

I do love the colour combination.

Now that the body is off the needles, I’m going to knit the sleeves before putting those stitches back on the needles. That way, I’ll know how much yarn I have left for the body. Maybe I’ll be able to make it longer. We’ll see. In the meantime, ’round and ’round I go!

A Knitted Purse

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Here’s another project that’s been waiting on me for a while and was finished up this week. I wanted to post it yesterday, but the handsewing at the end took a bit longer than anticipated.

One Stick Two Stick Sushi Wallet instructions

It started with a kit called Sushi Wallet. Here’s a Ravelry link for the pattern. The kit was from One Stick Two Stick and was packaged in a cute way, like a tray of sushi with six little balls of wool. I’ve chucked the packaging from mine, but here’s one that sold on Etsy. The kit includes the yarn, the pattern and a matching zipper.

On the right is the instruction folder, which shows the sushi wallet you’re supposed to make at the top. The second wallet is a variation, with just one sushi on the side and stripes on the back.

I found the kit for a buck in the discount section at Len’s Mills and they were all in the blue-green colourway called Caribbean Seas, possibly because it doesn’t make sense for sushi to be those colours (even though the combination was pretty). The yarn is a bamboo wool mix and there were four colours included: 64g of the medium blue, 18g of the light blue, 13g of the dark green and 11g of the light green. I weighed them all because I planned to do something different than follow the instructions. There was enough yarn to make two wallets, but I didn’t want two wallets.

I made a bigger purse instead, by casting on more stitches and knitting more rows. I also added a wedge at each side and a base so it wouldn’t be flat. (The original design is flat, a rectangle folded in half.) I also knit a strip to be a handle. Then I knit petals and leaves from the other colours. Here are all the pieces.

Purse pieces knit by Deborah Cooke for modified sushi wallet

I felted everything in the washing machine. I put the pieces in laundry bags to make sure none of them were lost in the washing machine – this set from Ikea is really useful. Once that was done, I sewed everything in place. I added some embroidery and ended up with this:

Felted Purse with embroidery by Deborah Cooke

I still didn’t love it, so I added some beads:

Felted Purse with beads by Deborah Cooke

I lined the bag with a cute scrap of batik cotton in matchy colours – just using the purse as a pattern and adding a small seam allowance. I also added a little pocket inside, because I always add little pockets inside purses. They’re so useful. You can see it on the right – it’s the perfect size for a hotel room key, credit card, or folded $20 bill.

batik lining for felted purse by Deborah Cooke

Here’s the assembled lining, ready to go into the purse:

assembled batik lining for felted purse by Deborah Cooke

I hadn’t planned on those two tabs at the top, but they came in handy when attaching the handles.

With the zipper inserted and the handle added, the finished purse looks like this:

Felted Purse by Deborah Cooke, finished - side A

And the flip side:

Felted Purse by Deborah Cooke, finished - side B

Overall, I’m pretty happy with this. The shape is a little bit wonky, but that tends to happen with felted knits. I certainly like it better than I would have liked a blue sushi wallet. 🙂

And this reminds me that somewhere in my stash of unfinished projects, I have the Elegant Edibles kit from Knitpicks, which is now discontinued. I think I knit the kiwi purse and I know I knit the orange one, and they must both waiting to be lined. I was going to knit the bunch of grapes, but I have a feeling that yarn joined the stash instead. I’ll have to have a look.

Water Shawl

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The Water shawl by Sylvia McFadden has been in my queue for a long time, even though the stitch pattern in the inserts is one that always gives me trouble. (That’s a Ravelry link.)

I made her Waiting for Rain shawl in 2017 in two colours of MadTosh Dandelion. It looks like this:

Waiting for Rain shawl knit in MadTosh Dandelion by Deborah Cooke

It’s a very long and skinny shawl, and better if I can wrap it around my neck twice.

Here’s one of the official images for Water:

Water by Sylvia McFadden

It’s so pretty!

I decided to knit mine in Fleece Artist Anni, a mohair and merino blend. (That’s a Ravelry link.) I’m using the colourway Frozen Ocean, the perfect mix of blues. Here it is in the skein:

Fleece Artist Anni in Plum and Frozen Ocean

I also bought a colourway called Plum. It’s a light fingering weight which makes it a little bit skinny for the pattern’s specifications. As a result, I dropped down to a 3mm needle (instead of the specified 3.75mm) to get a fabric I like. My shawl, of course, is coming out smaller, so I’m thinking I’ll need to do more repeats.

Here it is so far:

Water, designed by Sylvia McFadden, knit by Deborah Cooke in Fleece Artist Anni Frozen Ocean

The lead edge is at the top and it’s pretty tight at this point. I hope it relaxes when the shawl is blocked.

I think I’m still having trouble with that pattern stitch. It doesn’t look like the photo from the pattern:

Water, designed by Sylvia McFadden, knit by Deborah Cooke in Fleece Artist Anni Frozen Ocean

But I like it enough to keep going. It’s all twisted stitches so reknitting it isn’t an appealing option. I’ll just continue and be consistent. 🙂

Overall, I’m pleased. It has a wavey watery look to it that I like a lot. Onward!

New Projects

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There’s an unusual confluence of variables in my life right now, which means I’m starting both new writing projects and new knitting projects. It’s amazing to me how similar the two situations are. It’s not just about choosing the project—the bigger issue is getting the combination of variables right. Possibilities abound! I need to get some of them settled so I can start creating effectively.

Let’s talk about the knitting project here.

First off, I finished another pair of socks. These are knit in my usual pattern, the one I have memorized, in Fleece Artist Kiki. (That’s a Ravelry link.)

socks knit in Fleece Artist Kiki by Deborah Cooke

The tag says the colourway is Pansy but I think it’s really Nova Scotia (there’s no purple in this skein). I was excited to get this yarn on sale and realized later that it’s discontinued. It’s quite a thick sock yarn, so I went down to 64 stitches from my usual 72. I knit another pair of socks in another colourway of Kiki and showed them to you earlier this year. It’s a nice squishy yarn and good to have another pair of socks done for the winter. (I may have to cast on another pair of socks, just to have an anchoring project in my currently chaotic world.)

Water by Sylvia McFadden

I also cast on a new shawl. Water is a pattern I’ve wanted to knit for a while (that’s a Ravelry link) and I finally found the perfect yarn for it. The designer is Sylvia McFadden and one of the official pix of the shawl is at right. (Click through on the Ravelry link to see more.) You can see that it’s in garter stitch with lovely wavey insertions.

I bought a collection of her patterns and knit Waiting for Rain from it – that’s the Ravelry link for the pattern and this is my blog post about my shawl.

In case you don’t feel clicky, here’s my Waiting for Rain shawl.

Waiting for Rain shawl knit in MadTosh Dandelion by Deborah Cooke

In that pattern, the insertions were of a different lace pattern and they were knit in a contrasting color. There was a lot of stripe-y goodness in that design.

Waiting for Rain shawl knit in MadTosh Dandelion by Deborah Cooke

I’m knitting my Water shawl with Fleece Artist Anni (that’s a Ravelry link), a limited edtiion yarn that is also discontinued. It’s fingering weight and a blend of merino and mohair. It’s a bit more itchy for me than anticipated, so is a better choice for a shawl than a sweater. The colorway is called Frozen Ocean, which seems very apt.

Here’s how it looks so far:

Water designed by Sylvia McFadden knit by Deborah Cooke in Fleece Artist Anni in Frozen Ocean

The color is really not true in this image. It looks very green here, but is actually turquoise. I made good progress but am now at the first insertion and need to pay attention to the lace stitch. This bit isn’t TV knitting. 🙂

Portia deisgned by Norah Gaughran for Berroco

Which meant (inevitably) that I was casting around for a TV knit, since we’re binging mystery series these evenings. I’d been thinking of making an asymmetical sweater for the girls, which reminded me of this pattern. Portia is another sweater I always intended to make. (Yes, that’s a Ravelry link.) It was designed by Norah Gaughran for Berroco and has such an interesting design.

I actually have the specified yarn, Berroco Peruvia, but don’t have quite enough of it. I could make the smallest size, but that seems overly ambitious. It’s unlikely that I’ll lose a bunch of weight, sitting on the couch knitting. (That’s a Ravelry link because yes, Peruvia is discontinued.)

So I ended up auditioning yarn candidates from my stash – which is awfully similar to auditioning opening scenes for a book, my daytime task this week. The first candidate was some Rowan Felted Tweed Aran, which is exactly the same weight as Peruvia. (That’s a Rowan link as my colorway is discontinued but not the yarn itself.) Mine is a rosy colour, though, and I’m not sure I’ll wear a sweater coat in that shade. It’s a lot of pink. Beautiful yarn, though. I need to figure out what to do with it now.

Next up, some Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed Aran in a scarlet shade. (Another discontinued yarn; another Ravelry link.) Very pretty but I thought the yarn looked too thin when knit to gauge. I could use smaller needles, but then the dimensions of the garment would be changed. Given the design of this sweater, it’s tough to anticipate how to adjust the fit.

#18 Shawl Collared Coat from Noro Magazine #1, designed by Mari Tobita

Next candidate: Noro Nadeshiko. This is lovely squishy yarn, an angora, silk and mohair blend. It’s a little heavier than Peruvia but I really like the firmer fabric when knit to gauge. I had bought this to make another sweater coat, this one from the original Noro magazine, designed by Mari Tobita, at left. It’s called #18 Shawl Collared Coat. (Yes, more Ravelry links. The problem with a well-aged stash is that everything is discontinued.) This coat has really pretty shaping in the back.

The colourway I have is less stripey than the one in this picture. It’s mostly shades of grey with a little bit of brick-red and a bit of white. I’m concerned that it might look too stripe-y in Portia, but am giving it a try. Here’s what I have so far:

Portia by Norah Gaughran knit in Noro Nadeshiko by Deborah Cooke

This is the centre-back braid, knit down from the back yoke, so it’s going to taper from here to that lowest point. The red looks more emphatic in the photo than in real life.

After this triangular piece is knit, you then pick up the side panels along the edges and knit toward the front. If I continue with the Noro, I’ll have to make sure that the stripes are symmetrical. I’m just too matchy-matchy to be happy with the result otherwise. I’ll see how it looks when the triangle is done.

With any luck, I’ll soon have both a knitting project and a writing project launched!

Peridot

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Here’s another little cardigan from Martin Storey, originally designed for Rowan TrueSilk, a summer sweater called Peridot. (That’s a Ravelry link.) The pattern is in a book called the Rowan Truesilk Collection. Here’s Rowan’s picture of Peridot:

Peridot, a cardigan designed by Martin Storey in Rowan TrueSilk, picture from Rowan

The only thing I didn’t like about this was the multi-coloured buttons, but that’s easy to fix. I knit mine in Patons Silk Bamboo in Sapphire. (Also a Ravelry link since the yarn is discontinued.) It’s a pretty simple sweater, which means I have no explanation for its lengthy time-out. I cast on in July 2015 and stalled after the back and one front were knit. (Sometimes Ravelry is a little bit terrifying in the information it provides. 2015! Gah.)

Here’s my Ravelry project page.

Recently, I picked up this project again, determined to finish it up. Here’s the completed back.

Peridot by Martin Storey knit in Patons Silk Bamboo by Deborah Cooke

I really like this colour of the Silk Bamboo. You can see that this is going to be an a-line sweater – and the great thing about a traditional construction is that it’s easy to measure the pieces and check the fit before knitting the whole thing. This one is going to be a keeper. It has a lovely drape.

It obviously needs to be blocked after all its time in the project bag, but as usual when I pick up a stalled project, there’s less to do than I’d thought. I have most of one front done, and the sleeves are only 3/4 length. The plain knitting makes it great for TV knitting – even with the increases – so I’m working on this one again. I hope to have it done soon.