Socks made from Laceweight Yarn

My first purchase from KnitPicks was pure impulse. I read about a sale, and visited the website for the first time. Actually it was also my first yarn purchase from an online yarn store (not counting Ebay). I was taken back by how *cheap* the yarn was! Granted, it was all laceweight yarn I was looking at. Still...$2-$4 for a hank...I totally splurged and bought 4 hanks each of 4 yarns [details here]. I bought for of Shadow in Campfire, which is kind of a brownish, earthy orange. I used over half of one hank of it to make a lace scarf for my mom. I bought 8 hanks of Gossamer in 2 colorways. Sunrise is a variegated light blue with light pink. Sounds and looks nice until you try to figure out wth you're actually going to make with it. Top Hat is a variegated yarn in red, black, purple, and various shades between. It looks beautiful, but as a lacy item...I don't know. The Alpaca Cloud looks really thin and is very soft. It looks beautiful and I still haven't decided on a project I'm willing to use it up on. I got it in a moss green that is a nice soft, muted green color. Here are pictures of the Gossamer variegated yarns.

Sunrise:

Top Hat:

So, while looking at wool/silk blend yarns I can buy to make a sweater out of, I was considering the cost effectiveness of buying a laceweight and doubling it up to get a fingering weight yarn. Somehow I realized that socks are made with fingering weight yarn, and I have a bunch of laceweight in variegated colors that I don't know what to do with. Also, variegated yarns are perfect for socks in ways they could never be perfect for any other garments. Thus, I gave it a try and started on a pair of socks using the Gossamer laceweight in the Top Hat colorway. I also figured that by doubling the yarn I'd be able to prevent any nasty pooling.

I just finished the first sock last night, and the results turned out rather nice. They're soft and they feel sturdy. The colors do not exactly pool either. They ended up striping...but in various ways. It seems like each section of the sock ended up with a different striping pattern. I don't have a picture of the completed sock, but here's a picture I took while the sock was in progress. By the way, the pattern I used was the one I used for my first sock attempt, Aran Braid Socks for Teri.

In the picture, you can see the there is a striping thing going on in the leg of the sock. There's a sort red-black-red stripe pattern going on with bits of purple in between. In hte back and forth portion of the heel, the stripe turned to black-red-purple, repeated. The gusset, being many more stitches around than the leg, created a thinner stripe pattern with a line of black alternating between the red-purples. As the circumference decreases for the foot, the striping returns to something more similar to the leg, but not quite as regular. In the leg, there were long stretches where both strands would be the same color...either red or black. In the foot, somehow the colors got offset enough that the same colors did not overlap together.

Overall the effect is not bad. I like it. I don't expect to be able to duplicate the striping patterns on the second sock. This did not take all that much yarn either. I still have a bunch left from the first hank. Assuming the yardage is accurate, this took less than 220 yards. It will be interesting to see how far the rest of the hank will take me into the second sock.

Yarn purchasing

I admit, I just made a big purchase of yarn. I spent $100 at Organic Imaginings on some SWTC Pure, a 100% soysilk, and O~Wool Balance, an organic blend of 50% merino wool and 50% cotton fibers.

The store was offering a buy 2 get 1 free deal, along with a free t-shirt and free shipping on orders over $50.

LittleKnits is also having a sale on their Noro Kureyon at $4.68/ball or $42.50/bag of 10. I've been trying to decide all weekend whether or not to order a bag. I've really wanted to try knitting with it, since so many people rave about the beautiful colors. They're rather random and unpredictable. I don't typically like yarn in bright colors so I would typically avoid something like this. But, on LittleKnits, they have knitted up samples of the yarn. Based on those samples, I wouldn't mind getting some Noro Kureyon in colorways 150 & 172....but I can't decide which one. Also, I'd like to have an idea of what I would make with 1000 yards of a colorful stripy yarn. I may end up felting it.

Spring Cleaning

Lawrence and I are moving to a new apartment in the middle of May. This time we want to get everything packed well before moving day. I'm taking this opportunity to finally photograph and catalog all my yarns. I've got two giant trash bags full photographed, uploaded to Flickr, and entered into my Ravelry stash.

Learn from my Mistakes

1) Check for gauge. Even if it's not a garment. Even if it's a purse because you might end up with an over-large purse and not enough yarn.

2) Read the directions and know what materials you need (and bring them with you) if you're working on a project away from your supplies.

I was up to row 13 in the body part of the Hawaiian Motif purse. I decided to take compare the yardage & gauge of the Berkshire Bulky I'm using with the Karabella Aurora Bulky the pattern calls for. It turns out that I was getting 12.5 sts and 13 rows per 4" when the pattern gauge called for 17 sts and 19 rows per 4". That's a big difference, and would account for why I would have run out of yarn. My purse was turning out roughly 4" longer than it was supposed to, and to match the pattern purse's height, I would have had to stop at 23 rows for the body as opposed to the 35 rows called for in the pattern.

I decided to frog the whole thing and start over. For one, I'm using a hook size I when the pattern calls for a G. Maybe H would be doable, but an I hook is probably making the fabric too loose anyway. For another, even if I started adjusting the pattern for my gauge, I'd only be able to affect the height, and that would change the overall shape of the bag as well as probably still leave me short of yarn. Thus, it's rip rip I go! It makes me sad, but this is one of the things that knitting and crocheting teaches you. Sometimes you have to be able to distance yourself and start over for a better quality result.


I received my order of yarn from Knit Picks yesterday! I was so excited because then I could start all those cute tops from Sensual Knits. But then...I took forever trying to find my Addi ciriculars, the only circulars I have smaller than size 3. I have a regular Addi Turbo in size 0 and a Addi Turbo Lace in size 2. I tried the size 2 on a gauge swatch but it was coming out too big for the Pink Sundae Camisole. I tried the size 0 circulars and that ended up too tight. That means I need a size 1, which I do not have. So, I looked at the other patterns and decided to start on the Demeter Camisole, which took a looser gauge. It was already too late at night by then. This morning I wound the yarn for the camisole into a ball, grabbed my size 2 needles & the Sensual Knits book, and left for work. I take a look at the pattern and remember that it calls for a provisional cast-on. The only other yarn I have on me is my Berkshire Bulky. I have no other needles, just crochet hooks.

I guess I get to just sit on the train today.

Busy Weekend.

For such a busy weekend I actually got a bit of stuff done. Well, not "completed" done, but progress nonetheless. I finished up the first ball of Patons SWS for my "My So-Called Scarf". I finished a couple more rows on that Athenian Scarf. I even finished 3 rounds of my star shaped blanket! Sure, that doesn't sound like much, but each of those rounds get progressively bigger and the blanket feels pretty big already.

Here are some pictures of these projects. They aren't the most recent, but better than nothing. :P

"My So-Called Scarf" using Patons SWS


Athenian Scarf in Bernat Alpaca Natural


Star-Shaped Blanket in Lion Brand Homespun


AND, as a bonus, here's a picture of my first lace project (started last year), completed and blocked. I gave it to my mom when I went home over the weekend.

OhEmGee, it's HERE!

The yarn swift & ball winder I ordered off of eBay is here!!! :D

It's a Swedish, Glimakra yarn swift and a Japanese, Royal ball winder. I tried them out and they both work perfectly! This is now the perfect opportunity for me to organize my stash! I can convert all my hanks into cakes of yarn, and i can do that while playing WoW. :)

New projects out of old[ish] yarn

It's so sad that as a crafting/knitting/crocheting blog, I have a distinct lack of photos. I even have a digital camera now....what can I say? Call me lazy, I guess. :P

Anyway, as my star blanket reached critical mass and became too large/bulky to carry around with me in my [new] purse, I started thinking about how to use up the yarn in my stash. Actually, I started out by looking at the patterns in my Queue and thought about what I could make with the yarns already in my stash.

Athenian Scarf in broomstick lace

I've been wanting to make something in broomstick lace, and even if I couldn't start the Hourglass Jacket, there was an Athenian Scarf that looked very nice and basic. To figure out a yarn for this scarf, I thought about the qualities of the original scarf that I liked. What was it that drew me to the scarf?

• Bold stitch definition
• The way the broomstick part crosses
• Solid coloring

With this I could determine what yarns in my stash would be able to fulfill these qualities. I wouldn't use any of my laceweight yarn. I wouldn't use any variegated yarns either. I wouldn't use the fuzzy yarns. I also had to make sure I had enough to make a scarf with. In the end I decided to use my Bernat Alpaca Natural Blends in Peony (pink). I had 2 balls of this, in case I needed that much. Each ball is rather large to begin with, and the yarn is a bulky 2-ply. Although slightly fuzzy because the plies are loosely spun, it's got a very nice luster to it and has nice definition. The effect is slightly different from the original Athenian Scarf in which an 8-ply yarn was used (Debbie Bliss Cathay).

My only issue with the way it's turning out so far is that I would prefer the broomstick loop part to be a little more open. The holes seem a little too small right now, but I don't have a knitting needle large enough to achieve this. I may stop by Michael's today to pick one up. Alternatively, I could create my own "broomstick", loop holder thingy out of paper taped together to be stiff. I do have plenty of that lying around on my desk.

My So-Called Scarf, a slip-stitch pattern

I've wanted to create something that utilizes a slip-stitch based pattern. Slip-stitches show off variegated yarns beautifully, and they add texture and stitch definition while still looking refined. I could be pulling all of that out of my ass, but it sounds better than saying "slip-stitch purty!" It's actually a stitch pattern from a pattern book, repeated in scarf shape, but distributed by the people at the store, Imaginknit, in San Francisco. The pattern can now be found on their website at here.

Looking over everyone else's photos of this scarf on Ravelry, I came up with a few guidelines for myself regarding the yarn for this scarf.

• Single ply
• Shine factor (from silk, soy, bamboo, etc.)
• Multi-colored (striping or variegated)
  

I decided on using my Paton SWS. Since I only have 1 ball of Natural Crimson left, I may turn that into a skinnier scarf. People seemed to typically use 2-3 balls of Paton SWS for their scarves. I may use my Natural Pink with this pattern as well, alternating the rows to create a sort of mixed up striping pattern.

Foot Fetishists

There have been a few threads on Ravelry warning about the foot fetishists on Flickr who will favorite knitters' photos of their socks. Sometimes they will get invites to post their pictures to 'sock groups'. Apparently there is also an eBay market for used socks. I just did a search, and sure enough...they are all identified as "well worn" and come with plenty of pictures.

Hilarious to be sure, but what I wonder is how disturbed should I be? I mean, do these people just like to look at these pictures because they think they're pretty? Do they actually get off on this stuff, or is it merely a visual aid to stimulate their imagination? WTH do they do with used socks and hose?