FO Friday- Boot socks

Someone on Ravelry linked to Kemps who were selling 150g of Regia 6ply for less than £4. If there is one thing I like more than yarn it is bargain yarn!

4 balls in different colourways found their way to my house. I used the justification of making boot socks to wear to work, but really I just wanted stripy socks. They will be boot socks though as I find 6 ply a bit thick for wearing in trainers.

The first pair didn't have a pattern, it is just k3p1 rib with a cuff, afterthought heel and typical knit sock toe.

I worked them over 56 stitches on 3mm needles. Unfortunately they are a bit loose. This was intentional as I figured they would shrink a bit in the washing machine but the ribbing does not pull them as snug as I had hoped. They will be fine in laced up boots but slide around in wellies.

The next pair are being worked over 44 stitches, they look ok so far but may prove to be too tight. It seems I may be destined to Goldilocks knitting of late.

FO Friday- Slippers

I have a new plan for choosing projects. For a few months I am going to try to pick small projects that use stash yarn and can be made during weekends. This should help clear up the odd balls and scraps and means I don't get distracted by wanting to knit when I should be working during the week.

The first project to get this treatment was a WIP. I bought some Regia slipper soles and had started to use the free pattern that came with them to make slippers. I was using two lots of handspun from the tour de fleece. Baby alpaca and a beautiful alpaca/merino blend from the Wonder Why Gal.

They were coming out a funny shape and I was going to run out of yarn so I frogged the alpaca blend section and restarted the foot using some Debbie Bliss chunky cashmerino from my stash. Instead of following the Regia pattern I worked a basic short row heel sock with a ribbed top to the foot.

I think I need to look at a photo or video tutorial for short row heels the next time I do them, they come out ok, but I think there is something a little odd, maybe I am twisting some of the stitches or getting the wraps wrong.

Sewing the soles on is not the easiest task. The first one I put on and sewed while I was wearing it. This requires rather more yoga style moves than I am really capable of so I had to take it off to finish it. The second one was not so bad, I pinned it all the way round using dressmaking pins while I was wearing it, then took it off to sew. 

I think I would have been a little happier with slightly longer cuffs. If I was redoing them I would work toe up to use all the blue yarn, then finish off with the handspun on the cuff.

Mmmmm, cosy. Because the only thing better than wearing a pair of handknit socks is finding a way to wear two pairs at once.

I have been wearing these every evening since I finished them. They are super cosy and the ribbing holds them nicely in place. The soles felt a little narrow when I first wore them, but they seem to have settled in and are a good fit. I may be making some of these for Christmas this year (see, planning early!)

FO Friday- W socks

Not the World's greatest photo, dark evenings are making it harder to get decent pictures, but enough to see the patterning made by the yarnovers.

Pattern: Wanida by Cookie a
Yarn: Regia 4 ply in burgundy
Needles: 3.5mm dpns

The pattern uses decreases and yarnovers to make a diamond pattern on the socks. The pattern is easy to follow but I did need to have the book open all the time, even by the end I couldn't be sure I had remembered it correctly so it was safer to look at the chart. The pattern is charted, there are no written instructions so if that is your not thing you would need to convert the instructions.

There is a mistake in the heel set up. Ravelry solved this for me, you need to work one less stitch on the final leg round to make the patterning line up after the heel, move the extra stitch to be stored while you work the heel. Not a huge mistake, but somewhat annoying in a purchased book.

I have used this yarn before to make my T socks so I will not go too deeply into the details again. It is nice and smooth and should be machine washable. It is also an affordable sock yarn option with a good range of colours available.

Finished object Friday- V sock

The end of the A-Z challenge is approaching, just four pairs left to make. This week the V socks get to take their turn as the FO.

Pattern: Vidia by Rebecca Mercier from Sock yarn one skein wonders

Yarn: Regia Xmas in navy and silver

Needles: 2.5mm dpn

This pattern is great, well written and easy to follow. It is worked from the toe up with a short row heel. A pattern of V shapes made from decreases and yarnovers is made as you go up the foot and leg. After the heel is worked a cable pattern is worked up the back of the heel. Twisted stitches run up the sides of the chart, from toe to cuff. The patterning is charted so if you prefer written instructions you would need to convert them. The patterning is fairly easy to remember so once you have done a few repeats it is quick to work.

I do think the same stitch pattern could be used on the front and back, both are nice so it seems like a bit of an odd design. You could make two pairs of socks using this pattern, three if you followed it as written.

The yarn is lovely, one of my favourites so far. The photo does not do it justice as the flecks you can see are actually silver sparkles. The yarn seems softer than other Regia yarns I have used, it feels lovely even with the sparkly bits. Hopefully this will be as hardwearing as other Regia yarns. It should be machine washable, but due to my machine's reputation as a "destroyer of socks" I will handwash them. I suspect this will help the sparkles survive for longer. The dark yarn makes it a little harder to see the cables and twisted stitches, something lighter would have been better. The stitch definition is good, but a higher twist might make the cables really stand out.

Yarnovers and decreases make a V pattern working up the foot and leg.

I was trying to take a photo of the cable up the back, this is what happen when you try to take photos at night, inside using a flash. Try to imagine a lovely cable with lines of yarn overs at the sides. The cables make an inter twinned heart shaped pattern. One of my cables crosses the wrong way but I am learning to live with small mistakes.

On to W tomorrow, I have a pattern picked out, but have not chosen the yarn yet. I will see what is in my stash and may have to rethink my pattern choice depending on the yarn.

FO Friday- Parrots for feet

As I said yesterday, the tour de fleece has me totally obsessed with spinning, knitting is not getting much of a look in. Fortunately I have a few FOs that I have finished but not blogged about.

This year I am getting Christmas knitting started early, I started a pair of 6 ply socks for my Mum. As a bit of an extra challenge I decided I would do them two at a time, because I should really try it out.

I can see the advantages, mostly the tada! moment when you are finished and have a pair of socks rather than one done and casting on the second. Not having to keep count apart from on the heel flap is good too. I still don't like magic loop, it feels like knit a bit, fiddle around with cable, knit a bit more, fiddle with cable, repeat until sock is done. I find dpns much less fiddly.

Pattern: Bubble wrap socks by sock bug worked over the stitch count from the free Regia pattern
Yarn: Regia 6 ply in parrot
Needles: 3.5mm interchangeable

A stitch pattern close up

The finished socks are nice, a looser fabric than I usually make, but I thought I would see how they go done exactly to the pattern. The pattern of knits and purls does look a lot like bubble wrap and it makes for a nice fit as it pulls them snug to your foot.

Using the pattern meant I could make a pair of socks from two balls of yarn, I would have needed a third if I had used 3mm needles. But explain this, despite working the socks identically (and we know they are because they were TAAT) I ended up with two differently sized balls of leftovers.

Back to spinning for me now, I have the fibre for today all prepped and waiting, I may have accidentally spun a bit of it last night because it was too lovely to resist!

Scrap down- scratch mitts

It has been a few eeks since I posted a scrap down, lots of toehr projects have been gettin in the way and my bag of part balls has been getting ever fuller.



I made these a few weeks ago with the yarn left voer from the blue blueberry socks.

Pattern: Baby Mittens by Malin Nilsson
Yarn: Regia silk
Needles: 2.5mm
Mods:

10 rnds rib
25 rnds plain
2 plain rnds between decreases
No I cord as people in the know said not to

There was not a lot of yarn leftover by the time I had done the socks and a blanket square, but I just managed to make them. They might be a little small, in which case they will go to a preemie hospital.

FO Friday- Blue blueberries

I have been trying to get things finished up this week, so now I have a few almost finished items. This weekend I will be setting to with a tapestry needle and some blocking, and hopefully clearing the WIPs. I don't like having too many WIPs, I feel like I should be working to get them done all the time and can never choose which to work on.

Anyway, enough of the WIPs, for this is Friday, and thus the day of the FO.

More socks! And not A-Z ones, but extra bonus socks.

Pattern: Blueberry waffle socks by Sandy Turner

Yarn: Regia silk 4 ply

Needles 2.25mm dpns

Notes: I used a 4 ply over 68sts and worked a YOYO short row heel rather than following the pattern.

This pattern is great, fast to work and simple. It does get a tiny bit boring to be honest, but it is good for times when you need low concentration knitting.

The ribbed effect helps to keep the sock snug all the way along the foot so it would be good if you are not quite sure what size to make, go for a slightly high stitch count and the ribbing will make them fit. 

I am not keen on repeating patterns when there are so many out there, so I might not make it again, that said it would be good for manly socks where "fancy" things like cables are not wanted.

The yarn is heavenly. I bought it for the Walking on Sunshine KAL, but it got switched over to these as I needed to make them in a hurry. I will be buying more of this for sure as it is so soft, but according to the label is still machine washable. Plus it should be hard wearing as Regia tends to be. In fact, it is looking good for my all time favourite sock yarn, the colour range is very limited though and not many stores stock it, I may have to investigate buying it overseas!

These were a gift, and the lovely yarn made it a little hard to let them go, but the recipient seems to like them (plus they would have been to big for me!).

Stitch pattern close up:

Yarn diet free pass 5- Lots of blue

This is the last free pass of my yarn diet, in two weeks it is due to end and I will be free to buy yarn whenever I want. Still lots to use up from the stash though so I will not be doing too much in the way of shopping.

I needed some plain coloured sock yarn to start the lovely colourwork pattern the Wonder Why Gal sent me. I opted for Regia silk in blue and white to give a snowflake type effect.

Since I was shopping I also picked up two balls of Artesano Hummingbird 4 ply and a pair of slipper soles.

Both the Regia silk and the Hummingbird are wonderfully soft, it was a delicious squishy parcel of lovely.

The 4 ply is destined to be my L socks, I have fancied trying the Hummingbird for a while. The slipper soles are going to be combined with my alpaca fluff once I have spun it to make some cozy slippers.

WIP Wednesday- Sock skills

I do not usually do WIP Wednesday posts because small projects like socks don't look att that different between being WIPs and being finished, so I tend to save the suprise for a big reveal at the end.

Today however I have an ongoing project that I can talk about- Two at a time socks, yeah baby! (Sorry Austin Powers moment there)

In an attempt to get the festive season under control I have started the Christmas socks and it seemed like a good opportunity to try out two at a time (TAAT) magic loop style.

I have magic looped socks before, and generally prefer dpns. This is a first for TAAT though, and so far it is going well. It is a thick yarn so quick to make, meaning I should not get bored that it is taking twice as long. I suspect the final tada moment will be good when I realise that I don't need to start a second sock.

I have also added a WIP widget to the blog, I was just looking through Ravelry and spotted it so thought I would give it a go. I need to take more WIP photos though.

In computer news it is still playing up, but I have found a way round it that lets me post on the blog. More seriously yesterday it would not let me buy yarn! That being the final straw I whinged about it until my OH looked into it (He is much more computer minded). There verdict is that it is an issue with java and I will have to wait until the computer wizards fix it. That is one way to stick to a yarn diet!

Yarn diet free pass 4

I have been going well with the whole not buying yarn thing, and I think I might keep it up even after it is meant to finish at the end of May. I would like to use up most of what I have stashed- I live in fear of moths!

I made my yarn purchase for April this week, and it already has a destiny- three navy blue and three brown will be Christmas socks for my Dad, multi coloured will be Christmas socks for my Mum and the green is already on the needles as part of my I sock.

It looks like I have a serious Regia fetish!

Not really the case although I have to admit I have been keeping track of all the sock yarns I buy and so far Regia and Knitpicks Stroll are coming out tops (yes, I used a spreadsheet and yes I am a super nerd!).

The criteria are machine washable, hard wearing, good colour choice and not too expensive. A nice soft feel with low tickle is also important. For the Christmas socks Regia is really the only choice as it needed to be 6 ply for thicker socks, hence a big order.

I am not sure when I will get going on these, it would be good to have them done well before December so maybe I will alternate between them and the alphabet socks.

FO Friday- Stone the Gargoyle

Another scrap down that was meant to be a quick way to sue up some yarn and ended up taking long enough to call it a full on project.

Pattern: Stone the Gargoyle by Devon Monk

Yarn: Regia 6 ply in grey

Needles: 2.25mm

Mods: I had to stitch his knees to his body to make them stay in place. He also has no wings as I ran out of yarn. I had intended to make some with leftovers from this year's Christmas socks, but I have bought brown and navy blue so no grey for wings.

This is a cute little pattern, although the all knowing world of QI (British TV programme) tells me that he is a grotesque not a gargoyle. Gargoyles have water coming out of their mouths. Or maybe it is just not raining!

There were a couple of points in the pattern where I got lost, but the wonderful world that is Ravelry helped me out.

He is now sat on the dvd shelf with the scary films, seemed appropriate.

Year of the sock November- More Christmas socks

I realised this morning that I forgot to post my November sock of the month while it was still November, oops!
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Technically that is not quite true, these appeared as a finished object a few weeks back:
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But they have friends! :
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That's right, thanks to the wonders of 6ply speedy knitting I managed to get two pairs done, which is convenient as that is one pair for each parent. The blue stripes are for my Mum, the brown and grey for my Dad. I added grey heels and toes as I thought there was not going to be enough yarn, there would have been so it was a lot of unnecessary ends to sew in, but at least they look a little snazzy (as snazzy as grey and brown can get anyway!).
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The pattern for both is Thuja by Bobby Ziegler. I love this pattern, it is so fast and more interesting than a standard rib sock. They were both made in Regia 6 ply for speed and durability- past Christmas socks have worn to holes in about 4 wears so a yarn with a 10 year guarantee sounded good to me.

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I am not sure where I am going to fit socks in this month, still a lot of presents to see to. Wonder if I can make a pair in the 5 days left after Christmas is done with :D

FO Friday- Mmmmm, sockitty

These will make another appearance later in the month as my sock of the month for November. I have to say that they are single handedly (footedly?) responsible for renewing my sock addiction. They are part of my Mum's Christmas present, and were going to be normal k3 p1 rib socks, but I decided to go a little more adventurous (just a tiny bit, nothing too fancy or they would not be worn) and do a seed stitch rib.

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The pattern is a combination of Thuja by Bobby Ziegler and the free one that comes with Regia sock yarn. I used Regia 6 ply (for its 10 year hard wearing guarantee) and worked on 3mm needles as I like a slightly denser sock fabric. They worked up so fast it was like magic!

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The combination of bigger needles, a stitch pattern with anything interesting and some coloured yarn was great, I am most definitely back into making socks.

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One ball made exactly one sock, with less than a gram left over. Which was excellent, except the second ball started in a different place so I had to go into the third ball and have quite a bit of leftovers.
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The seed stitch rib shows up much better in real life, but you can just about see it in this photo (also hands are not great for modelling socks when trying to take a photo):

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Year of the sock October- Christmas socks

Another last minute posting to get my year of the sock online before the end of the month. These are the first of the Christmas socks, I got an email the other day with the title "it's too early to think about Christmas", I just laughed and carried on knitting.

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A few weeks ago I posted a picture of the things needed for working on these socks, it was not a new pattern but a new method. The chocolate was very important and actually listed in the pattern.

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The knitting in action, but why are there two balls?

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Ta da! Two at a time socks on dpns. This is a very cool method where the second sock is knitted inside the first, you alternate between the socks with each stitch. I followed the instructions from Knitty and used Regia 6 ply. These were worked on 2.5mm needles as the double knitting method is meant to make the gauge looser, I'm not sure it did. I did a mixture of one yarn in each hand and dropping the yarn between stitches.
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Unfortunately the switching between yarns made my hand and elbow ache, so I got about 2/3 of the way down the leg and switched to normal knitting, enough to say that I can do it. I stuck with the 2.5mm needles which give a dense sock, should be nice and hard wearing but took a little over three balls to finish one pair of man sized socks (approx UK size 10). Had to do a quick order to get an enough to finish them up, fortunately the shop still had the same dye lot.
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Finished socks, they will be stowed all ready for wrapping when it gets closer to Christmas.
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