skein

Fratello

Another Yarnissima pattern!

These ones are for the SolidSocks October knitalong - the colour this month is brown,  and I doubt one could get a more luscious brown than this Wollmeise shade.

These are toe up, and I've had a few false starts. This toe is a short row heel toe, but it's reverse stocking stitch. Try hiding the wraps!

As written, I didn't like the knitted up wraps at all. No photos, as I frogged it and reknitted the toe, with wraps, but I left them as was and didn't pick up to knit or purl.  These were slightly less obvious, but still I didn't like the way they showed up so much.

Back to the frogpond.

Third attempt is not a short row heel - its a Turkish cast on, but instead of knitting the rounds I'm purling them, and as you can see, the toe seam is virtually invisible.

I'm doing increases on the bar between stitches - still visible, but less so (and the inside is very neat, too!)

 

When it's stretched out (as on a foot) it's even less obvious.

I've had to press the toe as it was curling up as if it was inside out (which it is, I suppose) and this is the process so far.  I'm just up to the start of the gusset shaping. 

Apologies for the photo - it was taken before work today when it wasn't quite light enough.  I had to turn the flash off to capture the pattern. The colour's truer in the first lot of photos of the toe - brown!  I'll try to get a daylight one next time (yes, it looks like it's proper daylight but it wasn't, it was before lights off this morning) but as the days get shorter it's too dark when I get home to take photos. The only option is to bring camera and wip to work, then look like a pratt outside the office trying to take photos before the pub's punters arrive for the day!

This is a fairly easy yarnissima design, just a little bit of chart action.  The gussets and heel need doing, but as this is my third pattern I'm fairly confident that this won't be a problem. 

PS anyone having problems with Typepad?  For the past week or so it's been terribly slow to type up my post.  And I don't think it's pinging (bloglines at least).

Komet

I've finally cast on my October socks for SKA (ravelry link to Sock Knitter's Anonymous group).

The choice was either a holiday stocking (one huge sock for a holiday of your choice) or any design by Steffi Linden.  I chose the latter, but have wasted a precious 4 days dithering between patterns.

My initially thought I'd knit either Lizzie, Livia (from twist collective) or HoneyBee socks.

 
1st October - I cast on for Livia with some pale green yarn, but I realised after a few inches that I didn't like the yarn/pattern together.
2nd October - decided to do Komet (not one of my original top 3 choices) in the same yarn.  I found the pattern awkward and the yarn didn't seem to suit the pattern well.  I looked at other people's Komets and they looked different, somehow. Hmmm, wonder why?
3rd October - changed yarn and pattern.  This time it's Lizzie in some raspberry Fleece Artist merino sock.  Loved it, except that I'm doing Fratello for SollidSocks, and that's another one with lots of purl stitches, and I like a bit of variety in the knitting.
4th October - success!  Back to Komet, but using the raspberry yarn and discovering that I can't take knitting for granted, even after about 40 yrs of knitting!  Yes, I didn't read the chart properly, and it's only charted for every other row, not every row. That's why I found the pattern awkward and my socks didn't look like the photos!

Green socks, pattern followed (incorrectly) every row

Raspberry socks, pattern followed (correctly) every other row.

 

So much nicer to knit! The colour is much more saturated than shown.

Although I have a plain sock on the needles, I think that I'll have this one as commuter / work knitting this week, see if I can't finish it by Friday.

September knitting achievements and October knitting plans.

1) Finish Horcrux socks.   Done!

2) Start and finish a pair of SKA socks for September. Done!

3) Start and finish a pair of orange socks using my Yarn Yard orange yarn.  NOT done.

4) Knit July's Debbie Abrahams Mystery Blanket   Done!

5) Knit August's Mystery Blanket  Done!

6) Knit September's Mystery Blanket Done!

7) Knit 6 Picnic squares (leaving just 12 to go!)   Done!

8) Put away sock yarns not used in SOS and stash the new socks yarns I've bought since the start of SOS08.  Done! 

9) Update my flickr stash photos to load the new acquisitions and remove the knitted skeins.  Done!

10) Sort out the year's sock yarns for SKA and SolidSocks, but it might not work so well with SKA, as I haven't decided on what I'm knitting yet.   Done (sort of)

I'm very pleased with my progress. The only thing I didn't do was knit another pair of orange socks, but I'm not too bothered about that one.  Instead, I joined two more Mystery Blanket strips, joined the 7th strip of Picnic to the rest and darned in a million ends and knitted another 1.75 squares - 10.25 to go!  I've knitted half of a plain sock too, just haven't blogged or ravelled it yet.  Oh, cast on for a scarf too, just not the one I intended knitting last Sunday night.

October goals.

I'm not sure I can do a lot of knitting this month, as we're going to try to take a late holiday and I'm not sure how much knitting I can do when away, but certainly, the two big blankets will not be going away with me, which limits my goals (unless I can finish them before I go? Challenge??)

1) Knit the last four squares of the Mystery Blanket.  I hear the central square is special!

2) Knit the border of the Mystery Blanket, which is a mystery as I have no idea how big it is!

3) Start and finish my socks for SolidSocks on ravelry. I've decided to knit my Yarnissima Fratello socks.  I can't get enough of patterned socks at the moment.  The colour this month is brown.

4) Start and finish my socks for SKA on ravelry  This month's theme is Steffi Linden or Holiday socks (one of those big Christmas style socks, for pressies).  I'm opting for Steffi Linden, and the choice is between Honey Bee, Livia and Lizzy.  

5) Finish the plain socks I'm knitting at the moment.  It's a Kaffe Fasset Regia yarn, plain, top down, no photos yet.  Half a sock done.

6) Finish the scarf I started at the weekend.  No photos yet, but it's Manos Silk Blend, a mixture of pinky red, cream and black. 

7) work another 4.25 squares of Picnic - leaving just 6 squares and the border to do!

8) There's no 8, but I have ordered some yarn for a knitted jacket! Can I resist casting on, I wonder?

Picnic Blanket progress

Six more squares of Picnic blanket are done.  This means I have completed strip 7 (of 9).

I've already knitted the first 3 squares on strips 7-9, which means I now have 12 squares and the border and then it's done! 

I've joined the seventh strip to the rest of the blanket. One thing I hadn't realised, when I put this away for my Summer of Socks, is that I hadn't sewn any ends in!  So that was yesterday's job.

Here's Chris modelling the blanket.

Sideways

Lengthwise

and diagonally-ish

It's big!

Chris, you can click on the photos to enlarge them (not that we can see more than your hat!)

I've spent today doing nothing!  I didn't want to work on Picnic, my October SolidSocks and SKA can't be started until 1st October,  so I thought I'd spend time starting a few new projects.

I bought a couple of packs of yarn at Yarnhouse the other weekend.  I couldn't decide on a pattern for the Felted Tweed, despite browsing ravelry and my bookcase.  And the Rialto dk book is missing from the bookcase!  I've even tidied it up a bit.

So I've stash dived, and found a couple of skeins of Manos silk blend and will cast on tonight for this  pattern.  Can I rustle up a quick scarf in 3 evenings?

Twisted Flower Socks

These socks are very difficult to photograph!  If it's not the vibrant orange dazzling my camera, it's the textured knitting.   I finished these on Tuesday evening, but had to wait until last night to take photos.  Except last night it was too dark and my flash kept going off, obscuring the pattern.  So I tried no flash, and all I could see were fluourescent orange socks.  I've brought them (and the sock blockers) into work today, and have been trying since 8am to take photos, waiting for the right mixture of sunshine and shadow.  It doesn't seem to matter much, though, I'm still having problems with capturing both the colour and the pattern.  I give in!

So here we have finished socks.
The indoors shot:

Pattern:  Cookie A's Twisted Flower socks.
Yarn: Wollmeise merino sock yarn, shade SOS (that's a very appropriate shade name!)
Needles: 2.25mm circulars.
Started: 12th September
Finished: 23rd September  (I had a break in between; I knitted the second sock in three evenings and one afternoon)
Modifications:  none!  I added extra repeats to the foot, this is ok, it's a five row repeat after the last lot of travelling stitches.  Anyone knitting this who wants a longer leg,  please note that the pattern for the leg is a 32 row repeat, and every 32 rows the start of round changes, so you'd have to be aware of this when starting the heel, so the pattern flows into the heel.  I did reduce down to the small size after gusset shaping (68 instead of 72).

More photos
These two show off the pattern and colour well.  I've not blocked these at all, so they're a little lumpy and bumpy in these shots.

These next ones are disastrous, but they show how this colour confused my camera!
Here's the best shot of the heel - see, it's the flower pattern worked down the back of the heel.

And here's a bright one!  Pattern is completely obscured by the colour!

I've already had stick about how bright they are from a work colleague (who is wearing a bright cerise shirt!).  Cheeky beggar!

These were knitted as part of the September challenge for SKA and SolidSocks on ravelry, and I've thoroughly enjoyed knitting them.  I've five days left of September and just 2 Picnic squares to go.  Now that means I'll either do more Picnic squares (only another 12 left) or start something new.  I shouldn't, but my garment yarn stash has enhanced somewhat and needs attention!