princessdeia

Yarn: Knitwitches Sock Yarn in Lavender Sunset.
Pattern: Pomatomus from Knitty.
Needles: 2.75mm.
Notes: With my first pair of Pomatomus socks I suffered from SSS, even though I loved the pattern, this time around they knitted up amazingly well.

Published with wonder of Wordpress, whilst I am away.

Yarn: NDS - ALBA Shetland 4ply, in Green.
Pattern: Baudelaire from Knitty.
Needles: 2.5mm
Notes: The last time I made these socks I had a few problems with the casting off - but this time I used the Tubular Cast off and it works. I brought yarn at Ally Pally last autumn, unfortunately it is no longer available.

Published with wonder of Wordpress, whilst I am away.

So like all sock knitters I have a bag of leftover yarn and no idea what to do with it… I did a little bit of research online and found a few patterns. I don’t have enough for a blanket, I thought these were cute, and of course there is the calorimetry.

In the end I thought I would knit another pair of socks. I enjoyed reading grumperina’s experiments with Lorna Lace Spiral Socks, but I have mainly multi coloured yarn, so this wouldn’t work. With the leftover Lorna Lace from my Jaywalkers,  I brought some solid yarn to make the Old Shale Socks, but never gor around to making them. Then, last month I had a dream.

When I awoke, I had a strong image of the socks I had been knitting in my dream. I wanted the toe, base of the foot and heel all to be in chocolate and the top of the foot and leg to be in the multi yarn. I of course turned to Ravelry to see if anyone could help me find the pattern, in the end I discovered Hidden Passion (Rav Link) - which are almost right.

Instead of ordering the book, I took my yarn, needles notepad and pen sat down in the summer sun and started to knit. I figured it was just a case of knitting half a sock at a time on two needles, Using provisional cast on and the chocolate yarn, I began with the heel flap -30 sts for 32 rows (slipping the first stitch), then created the heel.

Next I picked up the slipped stitched to create a  gusset, then I knitted into the back of each picked up stitch for one row (I found here I had to knit with three needles). Continuing by decreasing one stitch at the beginning of each row until 30 stitches remained.

I carried on knitting, slipping a stitch at the beginning of each row until I was two inches short of the desired length. Then I used Dianne’s excellent description for a short row toe. Before changing to the multi-yarn.

I picked up the slipped stitch from the foot, and knitted it together with the first stitch on the needle. Knitted to the final stitch, slipped that and picked up the stitch from the foot and passed the slip stitch over. On the next row I slipped the first and last stitch (30 stitches).

Once, I had picked up all the slipped stitches from the foot, I undid the provisional cast on and started knitting on the round (with 60 stitches), until the desired length.

Then I changed back to the chocolate yarn for the rib - I did about 15 rows of rib.

Finally, I used the tubular cast off to finished (using Anna Bell’s tutorial).

Last night was the first meeting of the the Socktopus Sock Club at the Troubadour Coffee Shop in Earl’s Court. Some of us arranged to meet up at the tube station first, and planned on walking to the cafe together.

After waiting for a while the call of knitting was too strong and we headed to the cafe, but concerned we might have left Alex behind we left her a little note, thanks to Mel and her Post it Notes!

Once we got to the cafe (and found Alex), we discovered it was buy one get one free on cocktails, I figured it was safe to have a couple of Cosmo’s and knit, fully expecting that I would have to rip back my knitting this morning!

It was great to catch up with everyone, meet some new knitters and even watch as we converted our waiter into a knitter! It almost makes up for having missed Alice’s Hen Do.

All in all a perfect night, knitting, greats and some rather lovely Stockey Tiffee Pudding!

When I first started this round of Project Spectrum, I had a lot of big intentions. I was going to use this opportunity to stash bust, experiment with adding more colour into my life and blog away about all things fiery. Of course, it didn’t work out like that at all!

I have had very little free time recently, which translate to very little knitting and even less blogging. So in a last minute attempt to show I have been embracing all things pink, orange and yellow! Now I haven’t painted any walls yellow or rushed out to buy a bright pink coat, I have slowly been adding more colour into my life.

I figured the reason I never considered wearing yellow or orange was because I had never found the right shade for me… so before going to Rome I brought this mustard yellow top, I thought it was a safe bet, it works well with the staples in my wardrobe (dark blue jeans or brown cords).
Please ignore the lame photo it was taken as part of the “Fontana di Trevi Experiement” on Ravelry!

However, I am yet to find the perfect shade of orange and this colour is still missing from my palette. Pink has been the easiest colour for me to play with, it is very easy to throw on my pink converse shoes, and I have previously knitted several pink socks and of course I have had another pair of pink socks on the needles this month! I am hoping to finish these tomorrow, so I can start working with the earth tones for the next cycle of PS3.

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Navy.
Pattern: # One Husband Socks
from Whimsical Knitting Designs.
Needles: 2.5mm
Notes: After being with Jason for over ten years I thought I would test the waters around the boyfriend curse and knit him a pair of socks to celebrate our first wedding anniversary! These took forever to knit, I think part of it was me losing my knitting mojo and the other was the size (72 stitches per round).
Modifications:I knitted a plain heel instead of the textured heel in the pattern.

Yarn: Knitwitches Sock Yarn in Evening Sunset.
Pattern: Monkey from Knitty.
Needles: 2.5mm
Notes: For the last year, every socks knitter has made themsleves a pair of Monkey sock, as every reader of this blog knows I am always late of the starting blocks when it comes to knitting trends. What I didn’t realise was reason knitters love this pattern is the simplicite of the pattern and the amazing final product. Like with Jaywalkers socks, the pattern is easy to memorise and looks fantastic.

When we went to Ally Pally last summer, Laura had done her research and discovered Knitwitches, when we got to the stall all of us were amazed at the colours, at one stage I think I had six colorways of the sock yarn in my hand at one stage, this was one of the colors I came home with. I love the brightness of the purple.

Yarn: Knit Picks Palette in Brindle Heather.
Pattern: Baudelaire from Knitty.
Needles: 2.5mm
Notes:I actually finished these socks a while ago, but never blogged about them, and as I was wearing them today (with my Belle Shoes), I thought I should write about them. This was my first attempt at toe-up socks, I had a little problem with the cuff being too tight - but I changed to a thicker needle for the rib and it was fine.

Yarn: Natural Dyed Studio Alpaca/Silk - DK in Midnight Ice.
Pattern: Pomatomus.
Needles: 2.75mm.
Notes: These were the first socks I experienced SSS with - at first I thought it was the pattern - but once I cast on the second sock, it seemed to knit up very quickly!

I loved this yarn - the colours are beautiful and it knitted up fabulously - I have even seen they have some more on eBay (I can’t buy more can I?)

The last few times I have seen Laura she has been wearing one of her fabulous shawl creations (really they are more like shawlettes or mini-shawls), I don’t think I would ever wear a big shawl, I guess to a wedding or maybe as a sarong on the beach, but the mini shawls are really wearable. So of course, I had to knit one. I had always liked the Flower Basket Shawl, and I even had the yarn some Knit Picks Shimmer, I brought in the spring. So whilst watching daytime TV today, I have been knitting.

Lolly asked on her blog today about what shoes you wear with your hand-knitted socks with? I have a growing collection of converse boots (I even wore converse at our wedding reception) and I am trying to make matching socks for all my boots, this is newest yarn I have brought to go with my (RED) converse.

This is the second post this week, with my shoes mentioned - I am getting a complex.

Stromtroppers, Heroes World Tour, 6 Month Anniversary, and trips to the dentist have all meant I have very little time to knit.

All I have been able to go is knit a few lines here and there. My Gretel Beret is nearly finished and last night I cast off the cuff on my first Baudelaire sock. I am pretty pleased with this sock as it was my first attempt at a toe-up sock, I loved the figure 8 cast on.

Hopefully, I will be able to post soon with some lovely finished items - I seem to just love everything I have knitted recently, I’m almost longing for the autumn so I can start wearing them.

Speaking of Autumn, I am trying to organise a New Fall Season Swap at the Pop Culture group on Ravelry, it is just a mini-swap - just some yarn for a nice small Fall project (enough for a scarf, hat or gloves or socks) and a TV watching treat (candy, chocolate or hot drink), pop over and join.

As I mentioned, I recieved my sockapalooza socks last week. These pretty socks where made by Regina from Sweden, I checked on the the list of paloozers! and she doesn’t have a blog

I am doing my investigating as I would love to know what yarn she used, as I love the colour on the toes, heel and cuff.

EDIT: The yarn is Bambino (Baby) Ull from Norway, and the pattern is Old Shale Two Yarn Sock Pattern by Stitches of Violet.