Which-Crafts?

Hey! It finally reached its home! If you want to see my Spring Blossom Sock on the foot it was intended for — head over to ZigZag Stitch and take a look at it.

Look at these excellent Zebra striped socks!  They flew here all the way from Germany courtesy of Frau Deutz . They fit fabulously and are double excellent, because I love the Zebra stripes, but don’t particularly like to knit colorwork, so I would never have knit them myself.  Also she included a ball of Opal in a beautiful purpleish colorway - I’ve never knit Opal before, it will be fun to give that one a try sometime soon.

THANK YOU!!!

Sockapalooza Spring Blossom Sock

Started: July 13th, 2007,
Finished: August 8th, 2007
Pattern: My Own Eclectic combo - Magic Cast-On, Misocrafty/Wendy Short Row Heel, My own Slipstitch leg, 1×1 ribbing, 2 row cast-off
Yarn: Koigu 2 colors a green a brown blend, and a pink and green blend

Needles: Sizes 0,1 and 2 to handle leg increases Addi Turbo, and KnitPicks circs
Dimensions: To fit a 10.5″ foot with a 10″ width and a wide ankle

Outside of the size these were easy to knit, although there was quite a bit of trial and error as I got the leg pattern and color swapping worked out. I am not sure I would use the cast-off again, one time it might have been a bit tighter than I wanted, the other a bit looser. As always the koigu is a dream to knit with and very tolerant of my need to keep fixing things.

I wish I could tell you the glorious tale of how I reclaimed my Knitting Mojo and have sailed through this pair of socks. I won’t tell you the tale of woe either - whinging isn’t pretty. Suffice it to say - they are kind of plain but almost done. I am knitting the leg portion in a nice slip knit pattern that I made up by mistake and stuck with. It is making a nice cushy top almost like some athletic socks. I wanted to do something a little fancier, but with time running short I opted for speed over sparkle.

I think I can get the leg on this sock done tonight, and then maybe between Tuesday and Wednesday get the next one finished and actually get them in the mail on time.

p.s. sorry for the terrible pics of these. The camera isn’t working (just a lack of batteries - but who has time to buy them?) So I scanned this on the Print/Scan/Fax All-in-One on my desk.

The first succesful sock toes I have knit in over 3 months!! These are for my Sockapalooza pal - and have to be done superquick - so the foot is going to be knit plain and I’ll let the colors do all the work. Heels will be pink. Depending on how fast I get the feet done, I may have time to slow down and do some sort of pattern for the leg - I’ll see when I get there.

Its a little hard to tell in the picture but the toes are pretty pink with a little green, and the body of the sock is a green and brown blend. Both colors are koigu.

More technical knitting comments below the cut.

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So I ‘ve been going a little berserk with the socks lately. I am all psyched up for Sockapalooza, but as I don’t have my yarn yet, the outlet isn’t there. But never fear, I am putting that excitement to good use while I wait for the yarn to arrive. There are plenty of sock plans to execute!. To soak up some of the energy and experiment with some of the ideas whirling in my head, I have 3 separate pairs of socks on the needles.

I have a Jaywalker on the needles, I have the first of the “Psychedelic Sunset” socks which are the “final test socks” - before I make my mom’s gift socks (fair isle sauvie island style). And now I have started up a test sock for my Sockapalooza pal. I am knitting the Jaywalker in STR Medium-weight. I think the color is Peacock. These are really fun to knit and I can really see why they are such a popular pattern. I am enjoying the way this colorway is stripping into the Vs . Although now that it is out of the skein the colors are much more pastel than I originally thought. I have been currently thinking of these as my Easter socks.

The Psychedelic Sunset socks are a follow on to my last pair of koigu socks, hopefully fixing a few of the quibbles I had with their execution and design—like where the “seam” was where I switched colors for the stripes. I will also be adding a fair isle leg to them using patterns from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts “Sauvie Island” sock pattern. If these go as I hope then I can get right on that pair for mom. I hope to have them done before Stitches this year (which would be 1 year from when I promised them to her). They are being knit in some terribly bright colors of koigu.

These are the little baby toes of my test sock for Sockapalooza. These are STR Light-weight in Azure Malachite. I think that the weight will be similar to the weight of the sock yarn I have coming for my Sock Pal. Right now I am thinking some sort of nice basket weave for the leg, but that might change by the time I am done with the toes. I am currently combing my knitting books for just the perfect idea. Right now these are my commute knitting. (speaking of commuting - I’ll be having a whole lot more time to knit soon, more details in follow-on post)