My socks will live!

I bought a scale! And I measure my yarn, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to make it! The finished sock weighs exactly 50 grams, so I should have exactly enough yarn to finish the pair. And I do have some other blue yarn that is not exactly the same, but if I need it to finish the toe, I won't cry.

I just wanted to let you all know! Thank you for the advice :-) Happy weekend knitting!

FO Friday!

I have a finished object! This is the first pair of socks I finished in a long time, and I am in love with them! The pattern is Business Casual and it is a free pattern. It is a very well written, easy to follow pattern and I recommend it highly.

I used some Cakewalk yarn I had in my stash. It is the Walk base, in the colorway Grantia. This colorway has been discontinued.

I have not knit a pair of socks with the Walk base before, but it will not be the last. It is a delightful two ply and they are so squishy! I never want to take them off :-)

For as simple as this pattern is, I did have some trouble with it. It was my fault -- I get over excited sometimes and stop using my brain. But I fixed it, and my flubs don't show, much :-) I used this technique to work the traveling stitches. It is super easy and so fast! Much faster than working the stitch like a cable. Twisted stitches are a great skill to have.  The socks on my banner, my Farmer McGregor socks, also use twisted stitches.

Have a great weekend! Happy knitting :-)

Linking up with Tamis Amis 

WIP Wednesday take 3

I have two things this week, but I fear one of them will never reach their finished object state: my lovely Clandestine socks. These are so beautiful and so consuming... in more ways than one. I cast on the second sock with trepidation. Would I have enough yarn? Of course I will! I always have gobs leftover from socks. It will be fine. 

Famous last words.

My second sock still has two repeats of the lace pattern to go before the heel, and I really don't think it's going to make it to there. I contacted the dyer of Gynx Yarn, Laura, to see if she magically had a half a skein, but she didn't. She does have another skein if I want it, which brings me to my next conundrum.
How much is too much for a single pair of socks? I love sock yarn, quality sock yarn, and it's not cheap. It's not super expensive and I have no trouble with the fact that most of my socks contain $20 or so worth of yarn. But $40? For a single pair of gorgeous socks? I just don't know.

And there might be enough yarn here, but with a pattern this labor intensive, it's hard for me to want to knit them with the thought of running out of yarn looming in my mind.  So I put them on a spare pair of DPNs, and they will sit for a while, until I decide what to do.

But what cures the "I've run out of yarn" blues? Stripey socks! Stripy socks out of my Cakewalk yarn leftovers. I have been dying to knit these up long before I even had the scraps. The amazing Susan B. Anderson knit some patchwork socks ages ago and I remember I wanted to participate in the KAL she was hosting so bad! But I had only knit two pairs of socks, so I didn't have all the lovely leftover bits. But now, a year later. I have six pairs of socks out of Cakewalk Footsie alone, and my stripey patchwork socks are looking amazing!

Can you believe I started these this morning? I'm already to the heel on the first sock! This is the perfect palette cleansing knit. I have a feeling that when I am done with these, I will be ready to take on my Clandestine sock once again :-)

Happy knitting!

Linking up with Tamis Amis for WIP Wednesday.

Laundry Day!

The only thing I love more than a hand knit sock, is a freshly washed hand knit sock :-) Yesterday was laundry day for my socks. Most of my socks are knit out of machine washable yarn, but I hand wash them to get as much life out of them as I can.

I use Eucalan Wool Wash. I really want to try Soak, but my local yarn store doesn't carry it. I use enough to make a decent amount of bubbles in my sink :-)

I put my socks in one at a time and squish them in the bubbles. I let them soak for at least 20 minutes. Sometimes longer if I forget about them... which happens a lot.

The wool wash says it is no rinse, but I rinse my socks until the water runs clear. I wear my socks nearly every day, so they get pretty dirty.

I roll all the socks up in a towel and press the water out of them. Then I lay them out on my "blocking mats" (play mats from a big box store) and fold down the cuffs so they dry a little snugger. I have a fan that I set up to blow on them so that they dry a little faster.

Here's a sneak peek of my new socks! Read all about them tomorrow :-) Happy knitting!

WIP Wednesday

I am still working on the same two pairs of socks, but I have tons of pictures to share :-) I got my camera out on Monday when it was sunny and got some great pictures -- the color is really true to life in these.

The blue one is a Cookie A pattern, Clandestine. 

It is a challenging lace pattern and I love it!

 I can't wait to finish the pair. 

The leg goes on forever! 7 inches of delightful lace :-)

The pink one is Business Casual, and I turned the heel on the second sock last night. 

I should have a working pair by Friday! 

The Business Casual sock is single cables, but I worked 

them as twisted stitches. It is much faster and the result is a 

little neater I think. There are lots of ways to work twisted stitches, but I 

like the way Alice Yu works them in her Farmer McGregor socks,

so that is how I did mine. It is very similar to this technique, only

for a left twist Alice slips both stitches one at a time knitwise,

and then passes them back to the left needle. This makes it 

easier to knit through the back loop of the stitches. 

My knitting attacked me so many times on this sock.

I had to do major surgery during my gusset decreases.

I got all confused by the cables and my stitch count was 

off -- major Fiasco! It still has a wonky hole, but I 

cheated and sewed it up afterwards. 

I am the boss of my knitting! 

They make such a cute pair :-) 

Happy knitting!

Linking up with Tami's Amis and Other Creations

Dream Knitting

I have a lot of sock yarn in my stash. And since I have two pairs of socks already going, I am of course day dreaming about what to knit next.

I am a sucker for variegated yarns, and I have a few skeins of delightful Cakewalk yarn that need to be something amazing.

The top is Cakewalk in Maeby, the orangey one

is Cakewalk in Aztec Tomb, and the rainbow is 

Candy Skein yarn in Rainbow Fruit Chews.

I go a little bit crazy when I don't know what I am going to cast on next! Good crazy :-) Pattern hunting crazy!

Here are a few of the patterns I'm thinking about:

Sunday Swing Socks

These socks were made with hand painted yarns in mind, and I think my skein of  Aztec Tomb would look amazing in this! It also looks like a quick knit, but with some character. And a free pattern, who doesn't love that?

Aztec Tomb, named after Gob's magic

trick in Arrested Development. It is 

orange and pinks and reds. 

Maeby

I found this pattern after searching different names of characters in Arrested Development on Ravelry. I love this pattern for so many reasons -- cables! Yum! -- but most of all, I have a skein of the Maeby colorway! And how awesome would it be to have Maeby socks in Maeby yarn?

Maeby :-) It is pink and purple with speckles of

orange and darker purple.

Spring Prairie

These socks are published by Yummy Yarn Studio, and are just one of many of their socks that I want to knit so bad! These socks look like spring, and I want them on my feet when the sun comes back. However, I don't have yarn in my stash that would do these justice. And I am on a yarn diet, so they will have to wait.

Crusoe

I have had this free pattern in my queue for quite awhile. I have a skein of Candy Skein's Rainbow Fruit Chews and it is a very bright yarn! I tried to knit it once, but the pattern didn't fit the yarn. These Crusoe socks might have been designed for my rainbow yarn! So excited knit these up.

Blue and red and green and yellow! So bright and happy :-)

Rainbow Fruit Chews indeed!

I hope these patterns give you some inspiration. What are you dream knitting?

Favorite Pattern Friday :-)

A favorite pattern I want to tell you about today is Cabled Yumminess by Shelley Scholl. This is a toe up pattern, but would be very easy to adapt to a cuff down pattern if that is what you prefer.

This is my pair of Cabled Yumminess in 

Cakewalk Yarn, colorway Pink Lemonade.

If you hadn't tried toe-up before, I highly recommend it. Judy's Magic Cast On is an amazing skill to learn. It is a little tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's just as easy as other cast ons. Toe-up works best with the Magic Loop method. I knit my fist Cabled Yumminess sock on DPNs, and it was very tricky. I bought a set of Addi Turbos after I finished the first sock and flew through the second sock. One of the things I love about Magic Loop is it is very easy to try your sock on as you are knitting it, so you can check your fit.

Staci from verypink.com has a great video on Magic Loop. It's not as scary as you might think! And it can be used for more than just socks. I've knit hats and cowls and sweater sleeves with Magic Loop. 

Another great skill to test out on these simple cable socks is cabling without a cable needle. Once again, Staci has a great video on this skill. So simple! Your cables will fly by :-)

This pattern calls for an afterthought heel. I used a modified short row heel instead. I would love to knit these again and go for the afterthought heel. I love trying out different heels. 

I hope you check this pattern out! Happy knitting :-)