Starting and Finishing

Yesterday when feverishly working the heel on the latest Sock Madness project, I realized I wasn't enjoying myself at all. I was also sad that it looked like there were no stranded projects in the competition. One of the main reasons I joined Sock Madness was because of the gorgeous Pisqu socks from last year's SM and I just assumed there would be some stranded projects. I decided to rip out the sock I was working on and bow out of the competition so I could do some knitting I enjoy. I did learn a few nifty things from SM, most notably this Cat Bordhi technique for doing invisible wraps on short rows. (Here is Part Two of the video). I really have to buy one or all of her books.

I quickly began three new knitting projects for May. That bright yellow yarn is discontinued Universal Yarns Bella DK which I'm using for Duckies. It is a really soft nylon blend.  The Maizy (a corn fiber sock yarn also discontinued) at the bottom is the colorway Hot Feet which I thought was appropriate to use for Kirsten Kapur's Burning Rings of Fire Socks. The red and white yarns are going to be used for some Setesdal socks. The free pattern is in Norwegian but I can figure it out from the charts and photo.

The above purple socks are from the third Sock Madness challenge. The socks have arch shaping (paired increases after the gusset at the bottom of the foot) which makes them puff out around the ball of my feet.  I may do the opposite in future socks and do decreases there to make socks fit my narrow feet.

Here are some boring thick hiking socks for DH. The light colored ones are in Bella DK and the brown ones were knit with two strands of Panda Soy in Fudge Brownie. I am hoping to completely fill his handknit sock drawer very soon.

Butterflies are Free Socks

I think the worst part about Sock Madness is that there are all these waits. While I wait I keep casting on new projects. I think I have somewhere around 4 million projects on the needles right now.

I did manage to actually finish something - these are the gorgeous Butterflies are Free Socks which is a free pattern by the talented sock designer Rose Hiver. The pattern does the gusset decreases under the heel and features a picot hem. I did a slip stitch heel instead of the eye of partridge heel to draw them in and I went down to a size 2.25 mm needle for the majority of the socks.

This was the first time I used a non-wool yarn for stranded socks and I really liked the Kertzer On Your Toes Bamboo which is 75% bamboo and 25% nylon. The colors are Limelight and Mystical Grape and they're richer in real life. This yarn is nicely springy and I didn't have any problems with splitting (although when you cut the yarn the edges split). There aren't a lot of colors available in this yarn but Yarnmarket carries some of the colors and Yarn Forward carries some different colors.

Drawers Full of Knitting

I already put this photo of my sock drawer on Ravelry. Every time I look at it, I think the same thing. I really need a fingerless mitt drawer. I really notice especially when I'm knitting a lot that it is a good idea to keep my wrists warm. I also really like wearing them to sleep. When I wake up, my hands feel so wonderful.

Here are the Lusekofte-esque mitts. I knit them in Panda Soy (bamboo, soy and elastic nylon) in Grape Soda and Ecru. The free pattern calls for a sport weight yarn but I used a fingering weight and size 2.5 mm dpns. I really like the fit. I made a few modifications - I put the beginning of the row at the outside edge of the mitts rather than under the thumb so I wouldn't have to look at any wonky color pattern jogs. Also, I added some striping on the thumb.

Log Cabin Afghan

Here are the colors I'm using for my Log Cabin Afghan. I'm using this free pattern which I like because the squares are really large (mine are coming out at about 16" square). I'm going to make a total of 12 squares and then use that Charcoal color (shown in the skeins in the above photo) for the borders.

I agonized over the colors because I really wanted just blues and neutrals but there weren't enough color choices in Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. Each square will have the same colors - Seaspray, Plum, Blossom, Turquoise, Stone, Snow, Violet, Lake and Azalea. I bought the yarn at Knitting-Warehouse which sells Cotton-Ease for $4.29 a skein (as opposed to around 7$ elsewhere). The berry color (Azalea) is the one color I'm not sure about but I'm hoping the Charcoal borders will neutralize it a bit.

Because it is a cotton blend yarn, I am not using my usual reverse duplicate stitch for weaving in the ends. Instead I'm kind of splitting the yarn and working it diagonally. I hope that will keep the ends from working their way loose because I intend to put this afghan in the washer and dryer.

Also, here are my socks from the second round of Sock Madness (sorry about the night photo). The pattern is Frick-n-Frack and one sock is worked cuff-down and one is worked toe-up.  I decided to try to use up most of my unloved yarns for Sock Madness and this one is Stroll Tonal in the Canopy colorway. (I always like the Stroll Tonal colorways less when they are knit up.)

The one new technique I learned was Elizabeth Zimmermann's sewn bind-off (for the toe-up sock which is on the left) but I'm not sure I like the way it looks. Also I learned that television really slows down my knitting. I was averaging about 40 minutes for one 10 row repeat on the leg of the socks but while watching the 2 hour premiere of Mad Men I barely managed one repeat. I guess I will just sit and knit in future Sock Madness rounds.