Category: knitting

These socks weren’t difficult at all and I messed up on the stitch counts on the second one, but I love them: 

That’s because I started them in February and then got tendinitis and wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to knit again. I’m a little more cautious at the gym and start to ice my elbow now if I feel that familiar twinge, but I’ve recovered enough that I knit everything from the heel down on the second sock and started another pair (!) in the last month. It’s a far cry from my “Year of Socks” plan but at least I don’t have to feel bitter every time I look at my basket of sock yarn.

These are the Thicksgiving Socks from Summer Lee with two yarns held together. I know the cream one was Malabrigo and the bright orange was Hedgehog Fibres but I don’t remember the other yarn that I used. Whatever the yarn, these are my favorite socks now, The Socks Of The Return To Knitting.

I finished the first pair of my Year of Socks just a couple days into February–so far I’m on schedule! (It helps that this pair is made with two strands of sock yarn held together, so it knits up twice as fast as a regular pair.)

These are the Thicksgiving Socks from Summer Lee Knits in sock yarn from my stash (I actually unraveled an ancient unfinished sock project to get that purple yarn and finally use it up). Overall, they might be a little big, but this pair is FINALLY long enough for my foot–turns out that I was starting the toe decreases way too early on all my other pairs.

I also made my first peasant heel and yes, they are super fun, but all the reading I did about the fit not being great was right. I found that NOT doing a kitchener stitch at the end and just drawing the yarn through the last 12 stitches helped them stay a little flatter. (Kitchener on the left, “top of a hat” finish on the right below. You can see my heel stitch pickup on the right/second sock is nicer, too:)

I feel like I’m off to a good start with my sock project and have already learned a lot. I’m trying the other Thicksgiving Sock variation for my February pair (in the same size, since I suspect the ribs in January’s might be throwing off the fit).

Sock science! 

I’ve been knitting socks for Doc’s pop for the past few years and not making any for myself…because I was never happy with the fit. (These rainbow socks ended up way too short in the foot and I gave them to a friend.)

But at some point this month I realized something: I could try different sock patterns and research sock construction and make better socks–all for me! (Finding this sock designer on Instagram was the catalyst.) That spread into diving deep into the #yearofsocks and #boxofsocks hashtags and now I have enough yarn for at least half a year of socks (I’m still a slow knitter):

I have half of January’s pair done and already tried a peasant heel on it, vs my normal heel flap. I’m enjoying learning, but let’s be honest–I’m enjoying shopping for all these bright colors just as much.

Obviously no sewing happened while the power was out, but I did start my next knitting project: the Aquamarline Sweater from Park&Knit. It’s everything I ask for in a sweater (seamless, bulky weight, colorful) PLUS it uses up odds and ends from the stash.

The pattern is written to allow you to do whatever you want with the colors, but I’m thinking a rainbow ombre would be nice, like these two finished projects:

@stellarino.stitches on Instagram

 

PandaGoUrgh on Ravelry

Stay tuned for the finished sweater (probably 2021 if we’re being honest).

Let’s hear it for big yarn: I started this right before Thanksgiving and wore it last week. For me, that’s an incredibly fast knit.

This is another pattern from Good Night Day, the Kingston Sweater. The only change I made was to decrease about 10 stitches before the cuffs for more of a balloon sleeve.

I loved this yarn: Berroco Coco, a superwash merino that literally changed color in every stitch. (This colorway is “Park”.) It was exactly the rainbow dose that my winter brain needed and it’s not itchy at all. Warm, soft rainbows–everyone needs more of those, right?

I cast on for a sweater in October but it has more refined techniques than I’m used to–I had to learn the tubular cast on and was working on doing German short rows along with the dreaded “at the same time” increasing on both knit and purl sides and…it was just too much for my work-fried brain.

So I made a super-easy hat with leftover yarn from my last chunky sweater.

This was a free pattern from Purl Soho and it took about a week. It was perfectly mindless and gave an excuse to buy a giant faux-fur pom from JoAnn (always a plus). It also got me hooked on big chunky yarn again: I bought more to make another sweater from Good Night, Day and that one is flying off the needles.

Earlier in the year (a lot earlier, like February), my nephew asked, “Karen, can you knit gloves?” Because I like to be honest with him, I told him that making individual fingers was beyond my skill level but that I could indeed knit fingerless gloves. He thought about that for a little bit and then asked, “Can you knit me some fingerless gloves that are blue with a green stripe?”

Reader, of course I did.

The body of these are in Lion Brand “Basic Stitch” acrylic because he reported that the scarf I made him “was a little bit itchy.” (The green stripe is leftover Wool-Ease from that project–no complaints about the itchiness yet.) The Basic Stitch yarn is marketed as anti-pill, which seemed like a good feature for little kid gloves. I just did a Ravelry search for a suitable pattern and found this one for free.

He’s the only kid in my life and now that he’s not a baby, I don’t make many things for him (because he has his own style) but wow is it gratifying to make things for small humans. He was thrilled.