FO 08

These are my projects that were started and (mostly) finished in 2008. The mosaic was made using Big Huge Lab's Mosaic Maker tool.

My one goal for fibery adventures in 2009 is to learn to weave on a four-harness loom. Oh, and maybe knit a few socks.

Happy New Year, everyone! and Good Luck!

Plum Chilly

It's very, unseasonably, miserably, cold, snowy, slushy and icy here in the Pacific Northwest, and my knitting has turned from socks to mittens. Or gloves. Or glovey-mittens. These are intended for a photographer friend, who likes to photograph in the icy cold but occasionally needs his fingers & thumbs free of woolly covering. I plan to knit these as fingerless gloves, then to add colorwork mitten-tops and thumb-tops.

I am using Ann Budd's "Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" for the basic glove shape. I made the corrugated cuff with Wendy's brilliantly simple technique.

The yarn is (of course) Hazel Knits artisan sock, in Rogue Plum and Laguna.

Happy Festivus to all my wonderful readers (all two of them)!

Like a Rolling Stone

My brother and I worked out a great deal for birthday gifts this year. For my birthday, he went to his local yarn store and chose a skein of Blue Moon Socks that Rock in a colorway he liked (Moss Agate). For his birthday, I knit the yarn into some woolly waffley socks to keep his feet warm this winter. These socks are already well-travelled: they went to Boston with me and most of the first sock was knit at 30,000 ft elevation, both east- and west-bound.

Moss Agate has green, gold, plum and a bit of brown. The garter/waffle rib pattern created even stripes with very little pooling. I made the sock legs longer than usual (for warmth) but then found I would run out of yarn, so I added toes in a complementary color from yarn in my stash. My brother loves them - and they fit!



project name: John's Birthday Socks
pattern: garter rib (modified)
designer: Charlene Schurch, Sensational Knitted Socks
main yarn: BMFA Socks that Rock (lightweight) color Moss Agate
toe yarn: Claudia Hand Paint Fingering color Honey
needles: 2.25 mm (US 1)
size: men's size 10, cast on 72 stitches
my gauge: 7 st/inch
Ravelry project link
project notes: I modified the garter rib pattern by knitting two plain rows between each rib row, which gives the fabric a waffle look.

Socks in the Sun

While working on the Spring Forward socks, I realized my WIP box contained three other pair of socks-for-myself that were done except for weaving in a few ends. Now that the weather here has turned to our usual chilly, damp (OK, soaking) Pacific Northwest norm, finishing these warm woolly objects seems much more urgent. The photo above was taken during an afternoon sun break.

These are:
Orange: Spring Forward (Hazel Knits yarn)
Beige: Garter Rib (Perfect Day yarn)
Red: Forward & Back (HK yarn)
Green: Temptation (HK yarn)

I guess you can tell which is my favorite sock yarn.

Autumn Socks

These are the Spring Forward socks, and I understand now why the pattern is so popular. The lace is easy to memorize and execute, and the fit is perfect. The only change I made was to add a round toe.



project name: High C Socks
pattern: Spring Forward
designer: Linda Welch of Colorplay Fibers
yarn: Hazel Knits artisan sock High ocTANG
needles: 2.0 mm US #0
size: cast on 66 stitches
my gauge: 7.5 st/inch
ravelry project link

Very small dishrag. Possibly even wee and tiny.

This very small dishrag was a gift for Emily, she of Dish Rag Tag and Wee Tiny Sock Swap fame. Emily knows how to jazz up a knitalong. I never thought I'd have so much fun knitting a little pink sock, or a big blue dishrag for that matter.

The dishrag above is about 4 cm (1.5 inches) square. I took the photo with a set of antique wooden toy dishes that fit inside that wooden apple. The teacups are only about 1 cm (.5 inch) tall. Those dishes are probably my oldest toy, and have been much loved and played with. The only lost part is the lid of the teapot.

The dishrag pattern is a mini version of the Elmore-Pisgah ballband dishcloth. I used a 15 stitch cast-on. It's made of Hazel Knits artisan sock wool in Natural and Greenlake.

High C

The Sock Knitters Anonymous Ravelry forum started our new year of sock challenges today. September's challenge is orange yarn and/or a pattern by Cookie A. I've had a skein of Hazel Knits artisan sock "high ocTANG" burning up my stash for months, so I'm knitting it up in the "Spring Forward" pattern. I've seen Spring Forward knit up in many colors and they've all looked good; it's one of those lucky patterns.

There has been some long-winded discussion on the forum about what exactly counts as orange yarn. Nobody could doubt that high ocTANG is orange, but just in case, I took a snap of it in my fruit bowl, next to some real oranges.