The fourth and final pair of socks worked to fulfill my sock challenge posed in July is now complete. You see before you a triumphant stack of socks.
The final pair is second from the top in the photo. Made from Wisco sock yarn by Ewetopia in a colorway called Caterpillar, the pair are earmarked for my grandson. He participated in choosing color, yarn and pattern, so I will assume the gift will be welcomed by him. The question is, will they fit?
I know that his arch is slightly wider, and his foot is slightly longer than mine. At least that was true when I measured his foot last July.
These fit me nicely but have plenty of stretch left and a little more room in the toe.
I knit these socks using two 16-inch cable needles in size 1. They were made toe up, using the turkish cast-on. The bind off was Jeny’ surprisingly stretchy 1×1 rib bind off. I enjoyed using this method so much I will likely forsake my double-point sock needles for good.
Hooray, I have finished the first of four pairs of socks which will be given as gifts this December. These child socks are essentially one pattern, with the 28-row bunny chart from another pattern inserted between the cuff and the heel setup. It was just enough rows to yield a good length for the sock leg.
Both patterns can be downloaded for free from the Universal Yarn website.
While a bit slow to knit, the patterned sections were fun to make. If I were in a hurry, I would not have chosen to make socks using an all-over stranded technique.
But what really messed with me was the after-thought heel. On the first sock, I put too many stitches on the waste yarn. Then after the heel was finished, I had to sew together the extra loops. It was messy, and certainly not an example of my best work.
I am willing to gift them only because they will go to someone whose feet at growing quickly. If Fate smiles kindly on me, the socks will be outgrown and discarded before any stitches pop loose!
A word about the yarn: Both were sourced from KnitPicks. The white background is un-dyed Stroll. The self-striping yarn was left-over from another project. Two partial balls meant that the color came out totally random. It’s a bit whimsical-looking. I’m pretty sure the recipient won’t mind a bit.
So my objective for this week is to prepare to knit socks – at least 4 pair! Just to make things interesting, I have set up a few criteria for these projects.
They will use as much of my stash yarn as possible. You can see in the photo above that I have a fair selection which includes DK as well as fingering weight. Having gathered my yarns together in this bowl certainly helps me begin to think about color pairing of partial balls.
I will choose patterns new to me so that I will have variety and new skills to learn.
The new patterns will be available on-line from free pattern sources.
So far, I’m doing pretty good! I had no trouble finding patterns that I like without spending a dime. Some of these are written for DK weight. Here are my choices of patterns so far and the swatches I worked up for them.
VERTICALLY STRIPED SOCKS by NOVITA
Making use of a very graphical but easy stranded design, this pattern is knit at 24 stitches per 4 inches. These socks look fun, sturdy and very warm. The yarn I swatched here is Knitpicks Hawthorne Bare in a dk weight and Berroco Vintage dk. Full disclosure regarding the pattern: I downloaded it a few years ago and now can no longer find it on the ‘Net. I did see similar designs offered on the Novita website.
YAMADORI
This pattern by Ema Marinescu is available through knitty.com. She says the design was born “from my finally embracing variegated yarn.” To achieve this effect, the yarn chosen should have short color changes. This skein of Wisco Sock in colorway Caterpillar by Ewetopia certainly qualifies. With a tight gauge (34 st per 4 inches) and slipped stitch pattern, the resulting socks can’t help but be warm and sturdy.
LEMON DROP with BUNNIES
I have already made this Universal Yarn sock pattern once for my granddaughter. This time around, I will change it up by replacing the Lemon Drops chart with the Bunny Got Back chart, which is a sock pattern also offered by Universal Yarn. The designer is Amy Gunderson. The main color is an unidentified skein of cream wool in my stash. I’m pretty sure it is a superwash wool from Knitpicks. The variegated yarn is also Knitpicks and the solid dark is Berroco Heritage sock weight.
FAIRLEE
I’m pretty excited to try this pattern. Designed by Amy Christoffers for Berroco, Fairlee is designed for their Vintage dk yarn. She calls them slipper socks, so they will be great for scooting around the house during winter. But I think they will also work well inside boots during the worst winter weather. I’m showing a swatch of Berroco Vintage dk, but I will need to purchase more of this yarn to make these socks. My stash is a bit lacking in this weight.
Okay, so I’m keen to get started. If any of these patterns interest you, you may want to click through the following links:
A day late and a dollar short, here is my finish for yesterday. I made this for a friend’s birthday which, sadly, came and went before I had finished knitting.
The chevron stitch pattern is one I had been wanting to try for a while. This version is created using a slipped-stitch, not a stranded technique – which contributed to the lateness of my completion. Because slip-stitch, also known as mosaic technique, tends to pull the rows up tight against each other, it took 48 rows to create 4 inches of scarf.
The yarn came from Hobby-Lobby, from its new line of hand-dyed fingering weight yarns. Fiber is 100% superwash merino wool.
Bill has kindly consented to serving as my model today.
If you would like to give this stitch a try, I have attached a pdf of the twelve-row pattern that I used.
It was fairly easy to memorize, with only three right-side rows that varied. In this technique all back-side rows are the same: purl the knits and slip the slips. The pattern also features an I-cord edging.
I’m pleased with the result, but mostly relieved that I finished.
While tidying my workspace last week, I noticed all the shirt pieces I had left over from making the Howard Wabi-Sabi quilt. Since I had used only the backs, the leftovers included sleeves, fronts and collars. It occurred to me that there is a potential fiber object buried inside each one of them.
Naturally, I turned to U-Tube, to see what others have made from discarded men’s shirts. Not surprisingly, there were many, many projects. I wanted to make an apron, but I also spotted a cute little girl’s dress.
That idea I will save for another day. For today I am focusing on this dark navy all cotton shirt front.
I also happened to have a whole spool of 1-inch white twill tape which will work very well for the neck strap and the ties.
First I removed the breast pocket. This will be jazzed up a bit to add some fun color to my apron. Since the shirt fabric featured a little star motif, (okay, it’s really a snowflake, but go with me on this one) I decided to make a sun using yellow fabric and fusible interfacing. In fact, I happened to have saved some suitable yellow fabric that already had fusing attached to its back. I cut this into the shape of a corona and fused it to the pocket.
Next I traced a circle onto white printed fabric, pressed fusing to its back, cut out the circle and pressed it over the yellow corona.
Sun Shine!
Getting back to the shirt, I trimmed the upper edge into the shape of an apron front and sewed the button opening shut. Next, I sewed a piece of the twill tape to the neck edge and folded it over the raw edge, This made for a sturdy facing. With the rest of the twill tape, I found its center, measured down each leg to reserve a big enough neck loop and marked where to start sewing the side edges. These were sewed down in the same manner as the neck facing.
After zig-zag stitching the apron string ends, I re-attached the pocket, and was done!
POOR QUALITY LIGHT ON THIS PHOTO – SORRY
The apron fits me just fine, but it will work also on shorter persons.
This fun project cost me a few dollars and only an hour of time. With several more cut-up shirts hanging around, I can easily spend a little more time and a few more dollars to make unique, personalized gifts for the artists and cooks in my life.
Daily Fiber 