Tag: knitting socks

Posted in knitting, Living Life Well

Mary Delaney in the Garden

Posted on by Laura Kate

Yesterday I finished the first sock using KDDs design Mary Delaney. During a break in the rain, the sock and I took a stroll through the garden.

Pinned to a panicle of the Oakleaf Hydrangea. As you can see, the blooms are close to opening fully.

Mary Delaney on the rock edging surrounding the herbs. You see lemon thyme here. Very fragrant and excellent in chicken or fish dishes.

Hanging around with the garden peas. This variety is Sugarsnap.

Some of the paeonies haven’t bloomed yet, but buds are swollen. This stop resulted in a few surprised ants walking across the sock.

On the trellis with some clematis blooms. Notice some of the fluffy seedheads. They are fun to touch – springy, but soft as corn silk.

The sock has come to rest on my concrete statue of a garden cherub. I call him Dickon, after the character in A Secret Garden who charmed the wild animals.

I hope you were as amused as I was by this fanciful photo shoot uniting knitting and nature. When the rain starts up again, I’ll cast on sock no. 2.

Posted in knitting, painting

Friday Finishes (Yes, two!)

Posted on by Laura Kate

It’s been a pleasant and productive week for me. You see in the image that I have finished the second sock of the Mary Delany pattern.

This is the first time I have stranded two yarns across the heel. For the past few years I have been seeking construction techniques that reinforce the areas of the sock foot which always get holes. Logic tells me that two strands are stronger than one.

I used one blended yarn and one all-wool yarn. Fiber content includes acrylic, alpaca and sheep’s wool. Time will be the measure of success in this test of tensile strength!

The pattern is by Kate Davies, and I will again insert the link to it. I must confess to substituting another Fair Isle pattern for the pattern’s. Your results will vary.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mary-delany

My second finish of the week is the Winter Birds watercolor painting based on Bill’s photographs. My composition is compiled from three of his photographs.

The two chickadees are cozied up to a pinecone, with the pine’s branches and needles as background. Working out the best layout was a wonderful challenge. My goal for the painting was to suggest bird camaraderie during the depths of winter.

WINTER CHICKS

This painting is about done. I still need to clean up some edges, tone some of the masked areas and add a highlight or two. All fun stuff. And it’s finished in time to slip it into a frame and hang it on the wall before Winter officially begins.

After laying in masking fluid, I used hansa yellow deep, transparent orange, pyrrol scarlet, burnt sienna, Winsor green blue shade, Cerulean blue and ultramarine blue. My new favorite black mix is ultramarine blue and transparent orange.

Posted in knitting

ThWIP Thursday – SOCK!

Posted on by Laura Kate

Back from Wisconsin and fresh off my no.1 cable needles is this fancy sock – the first of a pair for my beloved husband. It turned out to be a pretty good travel project, as long as I confined my knitting to daylight hours. Under artificial light, the tiny stitches were very difficult to navigate.

I used Kate Davies’ pattern for the Mary Delany sock, with some significant modifications. The first was to make it wider to fit a man’s foot. Fortunately, choosing a larger needle got me most of the way there. I also substituted a 6 st. by 7 row stranded pattern for Kate’s 37 stitch diamond flower pattern.

This pattern is found in 750 Knitting Stitches, the Ultimate Knit Stitch Bible. It worked up beautifully with a light solid and dark-to-medium variegated yarn.

This sock is knit from the toe up. When I got to the cuff ribbing, I switched from a size 2 to a size 1 needle. For a looser bind-off, I went back to the 2..

Now to quickly cast on its mate, before losing enthusiasm for the project!

If you’d like to try this pattern, here is the link.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mary-delany

Posted in knitting

Friday Finish: Socks for him

Posted on by Laura Kate

At long last the toe-up socks I had been working for the past two months are done. And while I was cross at times over how tedious it was, in the end I fall in love with the finished product, just like every other piece of knitting that I finish.

As a reminder, the yarn is Signature Four-Ply by West Yorkshire Spinners. It is a blend of wools with 25% nylon for strength and regain. I purchased it in Madison, WI at a shop whose name escapes me. I used no1 circular needles, knitting in a 3 by 1 rib.

After washing and then left to dry flat, the socks became very soft and luxurious.

If I have the opportunity, I will buy more this yarn.

Posted in knitting

Monday Blues: Yes, I Still Knit

Posted on by Laura Kate

It’s been almost 2 months since I cast on this lovely blue 4-ply sock yarn by West Yorkshire Spinners.

I’m feeling guilty about my lack of progress since then on socks for my DH. It’s been very cold here and he has nearly worn out all the other socks I’ve knit for him.

In early January I picked this project up again and I hope that they’ll be finished soon.

This photo shows the toe-up method using two size one needles. Gauge is about 12 rows per inch. Because the stitches are so small, I find it difficult to work on this in low light.

But Ta-Da! I have one completed sock.

Today I worked on sock 2 during Westham United’s game against Darby. At the whistle, I had completed another 1 and 1/2 inches on the foot section. I’m hopeful that cast-off will take place before another week has passed by.

What are you knitting this month?