The nature's palette was perfect for these, the slight color variegation kept things from getting or looking boring. I really like the feel of the yarn, slightly crunchy while still being soft. I like my socks to have a little body or weight to them and this yarn provided that.

The color is truer in the top pic, blame the snow for the second one.

Posted by bitter purl at 08:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (24)

My blogging is a little behind my knitting, I restarted the elfine socks and I'm already on the second sock. I really didn't like the way the toes looked the first time around so I decided to use a turkish cast on for a much neater result. I'm not sure why I stalled on these, I think it had something to do with the needles. For some reason I kept bending them and hurting my hands on them, not a good time. Let's call it holiday stress. Thankfully I'm not as stressed now and can actually enjoy knitting these socks. But guess what, this is the last of the ufo's (not counting the mesh tank I need more yarn for)! Aren't you proud? I am! Though once I finish this pair of socks I won't have anything to knit. It's time for project ideas.

In the spirit of stash clearing, I would love to come up with a pattern for this brown and pink yarn. I have no clue what to knit though. Am I pushing my luck by knitting with variegated yarn a third time? Maybe. We'll just have to see won't we. What I do know is that I have a sweater's worth of this yarn just sitting in my stash mocking me. It's got to be used. I like the way it knits up on 5 mm's and I even get gauge for Jemima so that's one possibility. How about a couple more?

I've been eyeing that t-shirt sweater from the Ella Rae book for a while. I don't have a pattern for it, but it looks simple enough to make up. I like Mari's version and have the IK issue she modded from. The sweater under that one looks similar, but with a bigger scoop. I'm not so sure how that would look on a busty girl (who am I talking about?). My guess is: not great.

I love the cardigan to the right, but this is more of a 'well, if I have leftover yarn then maybe I can buy some solid yarn sans guilt and come up with a similar pattern" sort of sweater. The blue, eighties-looking sweater is from a Rebecca issue that I have in my stash and wouldn't mind knitting. I would probably end up making some shaping mods to it, but would mostly follow the pattern.

Any thoughts, suggestions? Any other patterns I should look at? Should I burn the yarn?

Posted by bitter purl at 08:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)

But I didn't mean to.

In my last post, when quickly explaining two socks at once, I said that you need to cast on for one sock, place that one on hold, and then cast on for the second one. Well, why? This really kept bugging me, why can't you just cast on for both at once? I didn't read a tutorial on this before I started, but Angela later found one here (toe-up, figure 8 co) and here (mostly about the heels).

It was bugging me so much that I decided to try it out. I grabbed two skeins of leftover yarn and some 5mm circs. They are 24" so the example isn't perfect, but it will do.

Alrighty, two skeins, one needle, and figure 8 cast on twice. So far so good. I had 24 sts per "sock".

I was still worried though about the first two rows of knitting. How would the awaiting red sock do while I was knitting the top of the purple one? And how would both bottom rows handle just hanging out on the cord?

Guess what, it works fine! Two socks cast on at the same time: done. Admittedly not the most beautiful toes, I didn't tighten the stitches and I squished the two socks for the picture, but you get the idea. Now I wonder if this would work with a short row toe.

eta: Here is one of my favorite figure-8 cast on tutorials.

Posted by bitter purl at 12:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

In a selfless act today, and in a way to ignore crap-o-tee, I casted on for the lovely Elfine socks. I have been thinking about these for months now and even picked up the yarn at Stitches.

That there is some lovely Nature's Palette in Mallard. And to avoid SSS, I'm 'magically' knitting both socks on one 40" circ addi. It's so nice that I don't need two needles for this!

Angela and I are doing a little knit together for these, anyone else want to join? My progress will be slow since I have gift knitting and the whole two socks at once thing. It's pretty easy to do, just cast on for one (I used a figure 8 co) and knit a couple of rows (I kept going till I increased to 24 sts on each needle). Place the first sock on a holder and then work up the second one to the same point as the first one. Transfer the first sock to the needles, making sure it's facing the same as the other one, and then knit like normal. So far so good! I have the toes done and I hope to work on the foot a little...if the guilt doesn't stop me.

Posted by bitter purl at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)