Ladybugs & Yarn

Yarn: Regia Tweed 6ply
Pattern: 60 sts + stockinette heel with garter border + flat toe + stitch pattern
Needles 3.0 mm KP circs

I was going to wait until after my Dad’s birthday to post photos, but then I remembered that my Dad doesn’t read my blog unless I specifically ask him to go see a photo I’ve posted or something. So! Socks. Thick house socks, specifically, because the flooring in the family house is rather chilly in the morning and evenings, especially with winter approaching. Plus, wool socks don’t get damp from the patio dew as quickly as regular store-bought socks when the dog needs to be taken out at six a.m. I’ve been meaning to knit my Dad socks for ages, and have started/frogged a couple of pairs, but it took until now to find a yarn + pattern combination I thought he’d like.

The Railway stitch pattern was borrowed from Nancy Bush’s Knitting Vintage Socks, and I’ll be using it again. It’s easy, memorisable, and interesting enough to keep the sock-knitting motoring along. I taught myself to knit by touch alone with these socks, too, which is different from just knitting without looking. I wondered why I’d never been able to manage to just knit along for more than a few plain stitches without looking down for a moment, until it hit me that I needed to be far more tactile and really use my fingers to feel the stitches as I was knitting them.

If Dad likes these, I’m all set to make him another pair, only with thinner yarn (and knit a lot longer in the leg, obviously) so they can be worn like normal socks.

Pi seemed to like them, anyhow. He tried to make off with them, and although he didn’t succeed, I caught a photo of the attempt:

Foolish kitten.

Pattern: Felted Tote from Fleece Artist
Yarn: Fleece Artist BFL Aran in Seashore
Needles: 32″ 6mm circ

I cannot manage to photograph this tote in a way that a) makes it look as cute as it is, or b) makes the lovely, subtle colours show up. Natural light would help, but it’s evening and I’m too impatient to wait until morning. So! I actually cast on and knit the base before I moved, but I got sidetracked and forgot about it until a few days ago. Then once I’d almost finished, I had to rummage around in the yarn containers to figure out where I’d put the handles.

I haven’t figured out what I want for a lining yet–I’m thinking that since the tote has a square bottom, it’d be cute to keep that shape all the way up and have a drawstring top like those cute Lantern Moon baskets.

At the moment, though, I’ll put all thoughts of linings aside and focus on the medical science test I have tomorrow.

Pattern: What pattern?
Yarn: Fleece Artist merino in Jubilation
Needles: 2.5mm circs

Stevie wanted to help with the photo.

I knit these exclusively on the bus to and from college, save for the toe decreases on the second sock (had to take a few minutes at home to finish that up so I could get them on my feet!) I more or less used my standard sock pattern–64 stitch cast-on, 13 rows of ribbing, eye of partridge heel flap, and flat toe. I probably should have only decreased down to 10 sts on each side instead of 8, but they fit fine nonetheless. Mmm, squishy squishy FA merino.

So! On the needles now: the sekrit socks, Juliet, and a somewhat-neglected Icarus shawl. I’m doing rather well at controlling the startitis.

Before I get to the FO… thank you, you lovely people, for the comments to my last post. The warm fuzzies were much appreciated. I do always feel a little bit guilty about not responding to things either personally or in a timely manner, but under the circumstances I feel I will be forgiven. <3 I have fifty thousand things to sort out in the next week and a half, and I should be in full-on panic mode, but I'm... not. Perhaps that, in itself, is a good sign.

So! Socks.

Pattern: Pattern? What pattern?
Yarn: Opal Rainforest 6ply in Flamingo
Needles: 3.0mm circs

And here’s the product of those long queues/wait times. Plain ol’ stockinette socks in cute self-patterning yarn, finished with enough yarn left over to knit another pair. They were worked over 56 sts with a 1×1 rib cuff, an Eye of Partridge heel flap, and a flat toe. I have them on my feet already, of course.

Pattern: Twitterpated Purse from Zephyrstyle
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool in Worn Denim
Needles: 4.5mm for the body & 6.0mm for the frill

I didn’t like the pattern when I saw it the first time, but it grew on me, and sometime last week it hit me that the thing was actually adorable. So! I knit it with stash yarn, and found the cute coordinating lining/strap fabric in a remnant bin at the local fabric store for fifty cents. The lining went in very neatly, which pleased me; I’ve been sewing since kindergarten, but I’ve never sewn a lining into a knitted bag before.

It’s quite small, just the right size for my wallet and keys–good for days when I don’t want to lug a huge bag around, but don’t want to just put the keys in the pocket and carry the wallet in the hand.

Pattern: The ever-popular Booga Bag
Yarn: 3 skeins of Noro Kureyon in colourway #164
Needles: 6.5mm circs

You’d think after 28 years of dealing with me, my family members would have stopped asking silly questions like “Why is your purse in a tree?” (I didn’t end up using the tree photo; it was amusing, but the colours weren’t as true.)

I mostly followed the simple pattern, although I chose to attach the handles closer to the top and sides than the pattern dictated. It’s taller than your average Booga, too, because I ignored the “knit x rounds” instruction. I just knit the i-cord first to the length I wanted, then started the bag and kept knitting until the yarn ran out. I was lucky enough to get three balls of Kureyon that were almost identical, so I used that to my advantage–I knit the first and third ball from the outside, and the second from the inside, so I could get some broader bands of similar colours where the colourways joined.

… I have nothing on the needles now, except a long-hibernating Hourglass sock that I must decide to finish or frog.

Pattern: House Colours Beret from Charmed Knits
Yarn: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Hollyberry & Patons Classic Wool in Old Gold
Needles: 4.0 and 4.5mm circs

Taking photos of your own head isn’t easy, so the dog was only too happy (ha) to oblige.

This was a quick and satisfying project, even moreso since the yarn was stash oddments left over from other projects. I made a size large but knit to a tighter gauge than dictated (6sts/inch instead of 4.5 sts/inch) and the resulting hat fits great. I’m not keen on the Patons wool, especially compared to Wool of the Andes–even though it’s merino as opposed to Peruvian, it’s rougher, scratchier, and doesn’t knit up as nicely or easily.

There are a lot of fun patterns in the Charmed Knits book–I definitely recommend it to those who are both knitters and HP fans.

Pattern: Garter Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks
Yarn: BMFA’s Socks That Rock Lightweight in Socktopus
Needles: 3.0mm circs

I love these socks. I loooooove these socks. STR is glorious yarn; this was my first time knitting with the lightweight version and I’m very pleased. Although I’ve listed the pattern as being from SKS, all I really did was slap the stitch pattern on socks to fit me. The recipe I used worked out great, too. I started with 64 sts for the cuffs/legs, knit garter-stitch heels and square-ish shallow heel turns, then decreased at the insteps down to 60 sts for the feet, and finished each off with a round toe. Since I plan to wear these outside of the house, I didn’t continue the pattern down the foot–I prefer stockinette inside my shoes.

Best part? Out of the 4.5 oz skein, I used 2.5 oz for this pair. There should be enough left to knit a pair of footlets with short-row heels and toes. Fabulous.

First, the FO — a skinny sideways scarf.

Pattern: Cast on a couple hundred stitches, knit a few rows, cast off.
Yarn: Patons Katrina in Blossom and Dusk
Needles: 5.0mm circs

A quick little project in sproingy yarn, great for throwing around the neck with a casual outfit. I didn’t count my stitches as I cast on, just kept going until it looked about long enough, and it was knit on larger needles because the yarn’s so elastic.

The postman’s apparently getting even lazier than before, as there was my KnitPicks order, a book I was waiting on, and my dad’s new electric acoustic guitar all leaning up against my front door in their boxes when I got home from the hospital this morning. I can’t believe he left something as valuable as the guitar just… sitting on the doorstep of a house in a residential neighbourhood. No harm done, fortunately, but the post office is going to get a call in the morning.

So! Onto the booty.

Crochet book! I’d like to be able to improve my basic skills to add a bit of variety to my fibre-y pursuits. And so I can avoid making a mess of it when it’s required to embellish knitting projects. The Regia Silk is from the 50% off bin at the LYS.

KnitPicks! First, there’s a ton of undyed sock wool that I’m going to dye for my Etsy store. There’s a sweater’s worth of Wool of the Andes in Asparagus, two balls each of Shine Sport in Sky and Silver Sage, and a skein of Memories in Smores to go with my stash skein of Smores so I have enough for a pair of socks. There is also Knitting Nature, which is full of fabulous patterns, a lot of which are constructed in unique ways.

I think Rusted Root should be finished in another week or two provided I don’t get too distracted. Like any good little yarn addict I’ve been planning my next major project, since I have a few to choose from. The Asparagus I just got in the post is for Flair, the Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece I have coming is for Green Gable, and the Cascade Pastaza I also have coming is for a modified version of the Phyllo Yoke pullover from Knitting Nature. Or I might go in another direction entirely and knit some lace with one of my Fiber Trends shawl patterns. Hmm.

Time to read a bit more of the crochet book and experiment with a stick and string.

I spent some time with a different set of needles last night: the ones on my sewing machine. I’ve had the pattern I used for this tote for quite some time, but I hadn’t paired it with fabric until I saw that pretty gold-accented oriental-print yesterday afternoon. Start to finish, it took less than a couple of hours–super-cute and super-fast, how’s that for a great combination?

It’s hard to see details in photos with dark fabric, but there are pleats on the front below the top band. It’s wider at the bottom than at the top and has some diagonal cuts on the low corners to fill out the bottom and give it less of a rectangular shape. The lining is red, and I think I might put a red ribbon between the handles to tie it shut–either that, or just some ordinary magnetic clasps, because I don’t like my bags to gap and expose their contents when I’m out in public.

I should sew more often. I’m far more disciplined with my fabric stash than with my yarn stash, mostly because I never know how much I’ll need for a given project and I don’t like to estimate.