It's Not Just Black and White

Knetted Socks

Wow I disappeared huh? Didn’t mean to do that! Last week just got crazy. I did finish yet another pair of socks as we watched the final days of the Olympics. They are the Knetted socks from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts, Rockin’ Sock Club September 2010.

First of all, I LOVED the colorway of these socks. As usual, great stuff coming out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts.The colors represent fall perfectly and it makes me wish I had started these socks back when they came! I wasn’t so sure about it in the skein, but once I started knitting with it I fell in love.

I knit the small size in the pattern and went up to a size 2 needled. This pattern was challenging in a good way to me. Cat Bordhi has such a unique style to her sock construction. The heel was one I’d never done before as was the toe. I was nervous about how they would fit, but they actually fit pretty well. Would I ever knit the pattern again? I don’t really know at this point. I have a lot of other sock yarn to knit through.

This makes four pairs of socks for this year so far! Two more and I’m caught upon the Rockin Sock Club!

In the Garden Socks

Next week we will have more than just knitting content. I promise.

Until then. I have another finished pair of socks! These socks are the In the Garden socks from July 2009 in the Rockin Sock Club from Blue Moon Fiber Arts. They were knit on size 2 needles with the colorway Heirloom. I can honestly say I was not a fan of the top portion of these socks. Despite being on size 2’s they were really tight to knit. The pattern recommended 1s or 0s!

I loved that the pattern taught us how to cable without a cable needled. That wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I did miss the going down a needle size for the purl portion of these socks so they are a little bulkier on the top and inthe middle than they should be.

I loved the colors of the yarn and they really do fit with the pattern. The socks were a very quick knit since they have a pretty short cuff. This was nice because I was able to knock them out in just a week and a half!

I’m slowly working my way through last years Rockin Sock Club. I did skip the March socks, and I’ve started the September ones. I’m hoping to make a lot of progress on those this weekend!

Fraggle Squiggle Socks

With the Rockin Sock Club 2010 club shipments coming out for January, I decided it was time to finish the ones from 2009. I got on a sock kick and finished the May club from last year. The socks are the Fraggle Squiggle Socks by J.C. Brier. The colorway is Pepe La Plume.

I started these socks when they came in back in May and had completed the first sock back in November. I finally picked them back up and finished them last weekend. They were knit on size 2 double point needles.

The pattern wasn’t hard, but there was a lot to remember with it, so I never really put down the pattern. That’s not a bad thing though because the socks kept my mind busy but had small enough repeats that I could work on it in a group setting.

I adore all yarns that come out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts. They are so easy to knit with, so soft, and wear really well. The color doesn’t fade and I haven’t had a problem with the socks wearing out. While these have a bit of lace in them they should still hold up pretty strong.

I’m excited to move forward with the rest of the yarns from the sock club last year, as well as the ones from this year!

The Blues and Purples Blanket

Looking back on 2009, I don’t feel like I accomplished a whole lot when it comes to knitting…. I took on two really big projects, my best friends wedding blanket and the Dr. Who Scarf. Between these projects I fell behind on a lot of other knitting I wanted to accomplish.

In the midst of all of the knitting I started a few different projects and very few of them were finished. 2010 is going to be a year of finishing…. I hope! My goal for 2010 is for every two projects I finish, I can start a new one. Why am I writing this in the blog? It will never get done if I don’t put it in writing. I really would like to get a good chunk of these done this year, but I know that I will not complete all of them without starting at least 10 or 15 new projects along the way!

I would love to say that in 2010 I’m only knitting for myself. I said as soon as I was done with Christmas presents that would be the case, and it lasted an entire day! For that, I just have a goal of finishing some of my current projects. So what is on this long list of things, you ask? Here is the current WIP* list.

Will all of these actually get finished in 2010? Probably not. I’d like to make a dent, especially in the blankets. All four of them will be amazing when they are done and I can’t wait to use them! On that note, I better go pick up a pair of needles.

Happy New Year!

* WIP  = Work in Progress

Every family has at least one holiday tradition. I hope at least. While my family has a variety of traditions that range from when I was a kid to new ones formed in recent years. Every year there is a set of stockings that hangs above our fireplace with all of our names on them. My grandmother knit them all for us at some point or another. They don’t match in color, but they match in design. Each of our families has a set of them and each of the grand-kids got a stocking.

Since my grandmother passed away in 2001, the stockings had been put on hold. There hadn’t been any new kids to the family so it wasn’t a huge deal. A few years ago I asked my aunt and uncle if they knew what had happened to the stocking pattern. I was just getting into knitting and wanted to make sure we still had it somewhere. They were able to find it and mailed it off to me at college. While there wasn’t anyone to add, I had them for when we would need them.

In the last two years we have added two great-grand-kids to the family. My cousins welcomed a little girl and a little boy into the family. For Christmas this year I knit up their two stockings using Red Heart. They don’t match necessarily in color to some of the older ones, but they aren’t supposed to, each generation has a slightly different shade of colors and as the years go on they will fade to.

What are your holiday traditions?

Adrienne and Josiah’s Stockings:

Simply Striped Bootees

Slip Ons

In November I had two friends who had baby’s due, so I pulled out the book 50 Baby Bootees to Knit. This book has a number of booties for a variety of ranges of age. It’s awesome and they are fairly easy to jump in and knit without a lot of previous knitting knowledge.

The first pair of booties were the Stripy Bootees. They were made with Berroco Comfort on size 3 needles. Comfort was a little higher than the recommended gauge so I made the 3-6 month size to hopefully allow the baby to wear it for awhile. Since Comfort is closer to a worsted weight yarn, knitting them up tighter kept them closer to a baby size.

The second pair I knit was also made out of Berroco Comfort. They were the Slip-Ons. They were knit on size 5 needles to get a better size for the baby. This pattern is knit for only babys 0 – 3 months old. They only took about 2 hours to knit and were the perfect quick knit for a baby who was born a little early!

I promise more content soon! I got behind on blog entries and need to catch up! I’ve been so wrapped up in Christmas knitting I haven’t had a chance!

Me Showing off the Finished Dr. Who Scarf

About two years ago my friend, Greg, asked me to knit him a Dr. Who Scarf. For those of you who do not know the history of the scarf, I recommend you read up on it. I’m not a Dr. Who fan myself but the history of the scarf is fun, and something that only a knitter would do.

With a few hundred other projects that needed to be completed first, the scarf got put on hold until this fall. I cast on the scarf at the end of July but didn’t make a whole lot of progress until the end of September. For some reason, I was convinced that straight knitting would be easy and the scarf would be done in a second. I wasn’t thinking clearly.

The nice thing about the Dr. Who scarf is that it allowed to me to use up some of the scrap yarn that has been taking over my collection through the last few years. The scarf is knit mostly with with wool and a little bit of acrylic here and there. It was knit on size 7 needles and the whole thing is straight knit. The pattern I followed was from the original. I did some math and figured there are approximately 60,000 stitches in the scarf. Adding up the numbers in total it took around 90-100 hours to complete.

Every knitter needs a project that they can look back on and say they are glad they actually made the attempt and finished the project. Would I ever knit a Dr. Who scarf again? Heck no, but I’m glad that  I jumped in and did it. It is something I can look back at and laugh about now that it is finished. Being able to say I actually knit a sixteen foot long scarf, feels like a huge accomplishment. It might also make me completely insane. Either way, at the end of the day the project is done and the owner is happy.

Here are a few more pictures for a laugh: