Stash Buster Striped Socks

I was feeling pretty proud of myself today since I finished a pair of Stash Buster Socks just for me! And then I checked to see when I started them, December 24. So OK not so amazing, although I did knit another pair of socks in the meantime. Still, here is the second sock, always the harder one to knit.

My mom has started a pair too and her comment was "Don't start anything new until I finish these socks" since then she would be behind. But, sorry mom, I'm on to something new but I'll give you some time to get your socks done. I'll be taking a little class on Tuesday on Vertical Stranding. Have you tried this? It's working a vertical line of colour in fabric which is knit in-the-round. Cool, eh?

I've chosen to work the Unchained sock pattern. I've started the cuff which I need to have done for Tuesday. Here's the introductory video . More news after my class. It sounds very exciting.
-Deb

Size 11 done

Oh, what a feelin', my size 11 socks are done!! Not my socks but paul's and he's very happy to have them.

I was running out of one colour in the foot, just ahead of the heel and realizing it wasn't going to make it til the end, I broke it off when I still had a little ball left and hoped it be enough for the toe. Knitting the rest of the sock with my fingers crossed was rather difficult but it worked!! I caught the ball in time and had just enough to do the toe. I subbed in a slightly redder colour in thinner sock yarn in the foot and it worked out just fine, gauges between sock yarns not being so very different, although it did feel thinner. When I feel the socks I can't tell.

So this is pair #4 of the Spiral Sock stash busting collection finished. Now I will get back to a pair for myself which I have most of the way done and had put aside to finish these. Woo, hoo, feelin' good.
-Deb

One Sock Done

I'm congratulating myself because I finished one size 11 sock. If you don't knit socks or men's socks, a size 11 sock is no mean feat! LOL. A 10" leg plus the heel make these socks really tall. On me they would be knee socks but on my husband they go to mid-calf. Yes, he's over 6' tall. Then there is the 11" foot. I made him try them on before I did the Kitchener Stitch to finish the end of the toe. Kitchener Stitch is hard to take out. The socks fit perfectly. Pat, pat, pat on the back. One Sock Done.

Now, to avoid Second Sock Syndrome. I cast on immediately after finishing the toe, almost in one action. The next day I was fortunately on the GO train commuting to the city. That was 3 more hours of knitting time plus knitting in the meeting. Now that I'm a goodly way down the second leg, it will keep me keeping on. I'm also trying not to call it the second sock, not to keep reminding myself I have already knit one. I'm just enjoying looking at the colours as I knit every stripe.

This is my carry around project which means sporatic knitting. I'm trying to prioritize finishing it or winter could be over before I get this done. Of course, there is always next winter. Shhh, I didn't say that.
Deb

Onward with Spiral Striped Socks

My stash reduction continues with Spiral Striped Socks. I just can't let this spiral thing go. So here I am knitting a fingering weight sock with three balls of yarn hanging off my needles. If you're interested in getting started with me this is how I got started on my socks.

Since this is stash reduction I dove in and found 3 x 50g balls of sock yarn. Why I have single 50g balls is a mystery to me because a pair of socks they do not make. But I found a whole bag of them. I may be making many pairs of these socks.

I choose 2 solids,an eggplant colour and a blue, and 1 variegated in blue/green/yellow. There is some overlap of colour between the variegated and the blue but for these socks it doesn't matter.

  The trick for these socks is now to divide the sock into 2 sections. Half the stitches for the back of leg and half for the front of leg. The stripes work because I have 3 colours and have divided my sock into 2 sections. For these stripes to work you need one more colour than you have sections.

I knit the cuff in Colour 1 (eggplant).
Begin the stripes: with Colour 2 (variegated), knit across 1/2 the stitches (section 1).

With Colour 3 (blue) I knit across the second section, the other 1/2 of my stitches.

Now I am back at the beginning of the round and there are two stands of yarn there. The Colour 3 (blue) I just finished knitting and Colour 1 (eggplant) which I worked the cuff with. With Colour 1 (eggplant) I knit across 1/2 of the sock.

Ta, da, first stripes.

Now pick up Colour 2 (variegated) and knit across section. Pick up Colour 3 (blue) and knit across section. Pick up Colour 1 and knit, pick up Colour 2 and knit, pick up Colour 3 and knit. You probably got the picture by now. At the end of each section (each 1/2 of the sock) you will pick up the new colour which is conveniently sitting there and knit. The trick is DO NOT TWIST the colours when you pick up the new colour. The new colour should flow from the row below the needle you just knit and the first stitch of the new needle. Twisting the colours as we usually do defeats the spiralling of the stripes.

In this photo of my first pair of Spiral Socks, I finished working with the Light Grey and now am going to work with the Dark Grey which I will not twist but pick it up so that it flows from the stitch the yarn is attached to.

Several stripes later and I'm happy with the results. They are a little dramatic but really fun looking pair of socks.

Happy Sock knitting,
Deb

Deadline is reached

All you Christmas knitters, it's here. I hope tonight you're just sewing in ends and everything is done. All my boot sock knitting went to pre-Christmas December birthdays and although I thought I might do more for the big day, it didn't get done. So I started some socks for myself just because I don't want to panic-knit. I'm so taken with this spiral stripe business I started a new sock in sock yarn. Merry Christmas to me. One sock done.

I started with my bag of odd balls of sock yarn.

I narrowed it down to 4 colours.

Decided to stick with 3 colours: the pinkish variegated, semi-solid purple and green.

Three colours, divide my sock into two sections, front and back of leg and away I go. I'll write this out in a future post. You might find yourself with a few more odd balls in your stash.

Have a wonderful Christmas Everyone,
Deb & Lyn

Spiral Hat

Our knitting guild is involved in the 25,000 Tuques initiative. One hat for every refugee coming to our cold country. I can't imagine having to endure a first winter here when you come from a hot country. Let alone all the other problems they are facing. So I'm taking up Jed's suggestion and applying spiral stripes to my hats. I am diving into my stash for all those little odd balls of yarn that are left over from previous projects.

Here it is:  get 4 colours of yarn, small odd balls, 5.0mm/US8 circular needle (40cm/16" long).
Small Child sized Hat. It works for any size of hat.

With Colour 1, Cast On 72 sts with Worsted weight or Heavy Worsted weight yarn. Place Marker and join in the round.

Work a Brim in 1x1, 2x2 rib or whatever you like. I knit 4 rounds and then purled 1 round.

Body
In next round place 2 more Markers. You need to divide your work into 1 less section than you have colours. I have 4 colours so divide my hat into 3 equal sized sections with the Markers.
Next Round: K24, Place Marker, K24, Place Marker, knit to end of round.

Stripes:
Here we go. DO NOT TWIST stitches as you change colours. I finished here with light gray, now I'm picking up the Dark Gray which was waiting there for me.

I'm going to knit with the Dark Gray. The colours are not twisted around each other.
Here's my latest hat:

And at the change of colour:

Here we go:
Round 1:  With Colour 2, knit to first Marker, slip Marker, with Colour 3 knit to next Marker, slip Marker, with Colour 4 knit to end of round.

Round 2:  With Colour 1 knit to first Marker, with Colour 2 knit to next Marker, with Colour 3 knit to end of round.

Round 3:  With Colour 4 knit to first Marker, with Colour 1 knit to next Marker, with Colour 2 knit to end of round.

Round 4:  With Colour 3 knit to first Marker, with Colour 4 knit to next Marker, with Colour 1 knit to end of round.

Every time you come to a Marker the colour you need to knit next is right there waiting for you. You will not be able to see where the colour changes are made. It's a fun knitting trick!

Work the Crown in your normal way. If you don't have one, here's one:
Divide your knitting into 8 sections and place markers. For this hat, 72 sts divided by 8 is 9 sts.
Marker Round:  *K9, Place Marker; repeat from * to end of round.
Decrease Round:  *Knit to 2 sts before Marker, K2tog; repeat from * to end of round.
Next Round:  Knit.
Repeat last 2 rounds until 8 sts remain. Cut yarn and thread through 8 sts, cinch up and secure. You're done.

Enjoy,
Deb

Can't Stop Spiral Stripes

Having fun with stripes. I've done 3 pairs now and I can't seem to stop. Help!
First pair.

Second Pair already given away to a grateful sock wearer. 

Third pair, have run out of most of light gray so picked up some blue. This system of spiral stripes works much better with a traditional heel flap. Happier with these.

Since I can't stop I'm scrounging around for more part balls of worsted weight yarn. But I'm going to switch to hats for charity. I can use even more little bits of yarn. Yay.
-Deb
P.S. Thanks CathyK.

Spiral around and around.

No more snow but now I'm hot on the trail of Christmas knitting. I'm knitting socks. No not in sock wool, that would be crazy! I'm thinking worsted weight boot socks are much more practical to be knitting with only 23 days to go. And after all I can't be 100% sure my daughter's boyfriend will wear them. But if you're going to be part of our family, wearing knitting is required. One men's pair done.

Now I'm working on a pair of coloured socks in 3 colours. All the colours spiral up the sock.

This is what I did. I divided my sock into 2 sections, the Top of foot and the Bottom of foot. First I knit across the Top of the foot in Dark Gray, dropped the wool. Knit across Bottom of foot with Pink, dropped the wool. Knit across Top of foot with the 3rd colour, Light Gray. All  3 colours are now engaged. (On the Top of foot I have a Dk Gray stripe and a Lt Gray stripe.)

At the end of this needle, I drop the Lt Gray wool I just knit with. The Dk Gray wool is very conveniently waiting there from the previous stripe. Pick up the Dk Gray wool and knit across Bottom of foot. On and on, around and around, picking up the new colour wool that is conveniently sitting there to knit across the next needle.

The trick, and you know there always is always a trick, is NOT twist your colours when you change colours.

I want the Dk Gray stripe to continue across the new needle for a stripe above the pink. This is way more confusing than it is to work. This is where I changed colours. No break in the stripe. No jog because the stripes just continue to spiral around. I think I love this.

I've done these socks from the toe up but it would work much better from the cuff down because of the heel. So for the next pair I'm coming down from the top with a traditional heel flap and gusset. I think I could use up a lot of odds and ends this way.

Deb