Category: FO Page 26 of 48

#8 & 9

On 16 Nov, 2008

There’s been a dry spell on socks. Unless there was another pair of finished socks that I can’t remember. Completely possible.

October Socks (Socks #8)

Yarn: I can’t remember — Lana Grossa?
Needles: 2.5mm
Pattern: My standard toe up socks with 64 stitches around.

It was a limited time colorway, sold in hanks.Â The colors reminded me of fall colors.Â I worked on these during SOAR.Â The first sock was finished during the field trip to HTTM.Â My eyes were on the fall colors in the hillsides from the bus.Â My fingers were working on these socks.

I’m rather disappointed how the yarn patterning turned out.Â It’s too mottled for my taste.

November Socks (Socks #9)

Yarn: Handspun Spunky Eclectic 100% BFL; 3 ply; fingering weight; spun in October 2008.
Colorway: Burning Bush
Needles: 2.5mm
Pattern: Standard toe-up socks with waffle cuffs.

Waffle pattern:
Row 1 & 2: k2, p2
Row 3 & 4: k

The yarn is extremely cushy.Â I was aiming for the look of my favorite sock yarn — Zitron’s Trekking XXL.Â I love how Trekking gently flows from one color to another without repeats.Â I think I really came close with this.Â I stripped the roving into thirds lengthwise, but otherwise, just let things happen.Â The yarn is still thicker than Trekking, but it’s much softer and has more loft.

Granted, it probably won’t wear nearly as well, since it is 100% BFL, but it is lovely.

I added the waffle pattern to the cuff, because I’ve always loved the Blueberry Waffle sock pattern, but have never actually made a pair because I merrily knit along and forget to switch to pattern.

I started out the year making about 2 pairs of socks per month. It was because I was trying out a bunch of different toe/heel methods. Things have slowed down dramatically since then. I wonder if I can average 1 pair a month for the year? 7 weeks remaining for 3 more pairs. We’ll see.Â Maybe there’s a miracle and there were completed socks that I forgot to document.

Flower Hat

By Ann

On 16 Sep, 2008

In FO, Knit

Flower Hat for Iris is complete.

Pattern: Flower Hat, from Knit-A-Hat by Ruth SÃ¸rensen
Yarn: Kauni Effektgarn 8/2, colorway EG (foreground) and ET (background)
Needles: 3.50 mm

The finished hat weighs about 60 grams, with the background color weighing in just a hair more, but fairly close to 50/50.Â It only took less than 2-3 days to knit, but that included quite a bit of ripping back and reknitting.Â Assuming all goes well, it can definitely be done in a weekend.

The colors are pretty true in this picture.Â I would have like a bit more contrast between the 2 colors.Â By complete coincidence, the greyscale matched up on the 2 balls of yarn when I picked it up to knit.Â If I shifted one of them, the contrast might be better, but I think I also want a color shift.Â I may go ahead and order ball of Kauni in a different colorway.Â (I still have about 130 grams of each color left.)

And get a load of the depth of the hat! It’s a full 9″. Even with a Sarah Palin’s little up-do, I can’t fill the hat.Â But that was with the hat sitting slightly above the ears.Â I would imagine that Iris would wear it over her ears while skiing.

And the hand?Â Yes, it softened up somewhat after its bath, but I still think that a lining wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Would I do this pattern again?Â Most definitely.Â I really like the leaf pattern, but with a different contrast yarn.Â I also picked up a little bag pattern that I’d like to make.Â There’s a whole lot of yarn remaining.

Actually, there might be enough yarn for a vest in there.Â Hmmm.

October Batt Club

By Ann

On 29 Jul, 2008

In FO, Spin

(Or, I’m a Loser.)

Since I don’t have anything worthwhile to show you for the Tour de Fleece, I’m going to show you something else that I finished instead…

Yarn Specs:

Source: Abby‘s Batt Club, October, 2007
Fiber: First Frost: 33% Extra Fine Merino/33% Baby Alpaca/33% Silk/1% Firestar Nylon
Plies: 2
Yardage: 22 wpi (after wet finishing)
Weight: 3.5 oz.

Tour de Fleece

Yes, as I said earlier. I’m a Loser, with a capital “L”. The combination of a busy life and fiber that I’m not all that thrilled about, makes for a lousy combination in terms of progress. Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with the fiber nor the prep from Spinderella. I just don’t enjoy spinning it because I’m not fond of spinning worsted weight yarn. And it has a little too much glitz for my taste.

Wait a minute, you say.Â The October Batts have glitz too, but you love it, right?Â Yeah. But it’s the amount of glitz.Â And the glitz in the October Batts are much finer than the one used in Spinderella’s thrums, so the effect is more subtle.

Normally, what keeps me spinning a particular fiber are the daydreams of what I can make out of it. But the combination of the texture and the glitz, I knew that there isn’t anything that I want to make out of the resulting yarn. Since I’m not enthusiastic about the end game, the journey isn’t all that thrilling either.

What did I get done? So far, 2 bumps out of the 8 are spun onto 3 bobbins. I plied 2+ of the bobbins for a whopping 278 yards of worsted weight 2-ply yarn.

Instead of spinning for Tour de Fleece, I found the time to finish plying some leftover Chasing Rainbows merino/silk singles (58 yds, plied from center pulled ball), and the above lace weight yarn.

This is not to say that joining the Tour was a waste of time. It did get me moving again on this roving. 2 out of 8 batts completed. I will continue to work on these until they are done. But there may be other spinning in between.