FO and WIP - afterthought socks

The afterthought heel experiment worked well :)





I wanted to try the afterthought heel technique, where you basically start knitting a sock (toe up or cuff down), put in some waste yarn where you'll put the heel later, then keep knitting the tube. Then when you've finished your sock, you go back and pick up the stitches from the waste yarn, and basically knit another toe. (I know, rubbish description. If you google it, there'll be tons of far better descriptions and tutorials) I wanted to make stripey socks, but short row heels never seem to work out for me. They always seem to fall off my heel and have massive holes. So I thought I'd give this a try. Other people seemed to be having success with it, and I figured, it's only knitting - I'll give something new a try :)



For some reason, even though this heel is basically the same shape as a short row heel, it seems to stay on my foot much better. I can't explain it, it just seems to hug the heel of my foot much better - it feels less forced onto my foot. I did end up picking up 68sts when the rest of the sock was 64sts around, to close holes, and because I seemed to end up with a couple of extra sts anyway. Maybe that larger amount of sts accounts for it fitting better. I'm not sure, but I do like the way it fits. Not as much as I like heel flaps, but this works really well for striped socks, and it means you don't have to interrupt the pattern in self-striping yarn at all.



So, after these were finished, I cast on another pair. I found 2 balls of Regia in a charity shop recently, but they were both different shades of blue. I can't make a pair from one ball for myself because my feet are too big, so I figured I would stripe them.



I knit these from the toe up because I wanted the striping to end up exact on the toe. I didn't want to have to start decreases halfway through a stripe. So I did a figure 8 cast on, knit the toe in the navy blue, and then started striping. Luckily, I managed to fit the heel right into the middle of a navy stripe, and then I made the ribbing at the top of the cuff in navy too.



I've only done one of these socks so far, but I'm liking the stripeyness :)

WIP Wednesday - Oh my, where did all this come from??

I felt this morning that I hadn't really done that much this week to write about. I've been kind of skipping between projects again, and that's made me feel like I've hardly accomplished anything on any of them. Then I went through my project bags to take photos :)

I've been knitting on three projects this week. I've got an afterthought pair of socks on the go - this pair from the toe up. No photos yet of them though. And I cast on two new scarf projects. I finished the Willow Scarf (I think I said that already in another post) but it's not steamed out yet, so it doesn't count as an FO yet.

The first scarf is another rectangular scarf to work on when the bf's mother comes to visit. I'm using yarn from two cones held double, so it has to stay beside the sofa, and that's the only time I'm on there. Same yarn as the willow scarf - laceweight burgundy acrylic. I got the two cones from a charity shop ages ago, and they've been never ending. This should be the last scarf that comes off those cones though, they're nearly finished! :D



The pattern is Falling Water by Bonnie Sennott. It's a free pattern off Ravelry. I cast on 48sts, (an extra couple of repeats) and it's been going really fast. I chose that pattern because the repeats are quite a few rows long, so I wouldn't get bored with it so easily. That's the plan anyway. I've got to the stage where I've memorised the pattern, and can just read where I am on my knitting, which is always good :)

I also cast on Celaeno by Rosemary Hill, from the 7 small shawls ebook (the first one). This is the first pattern I've knit from that book so far, but there are lots more that I want to make from it. I've purchased the second book too - can't wait to see the patterns she comes up with for it!

I'm using the Sundara fingering silky merino that I won in a blog giveaway from Lina at photoknitdog. It's so lovely to knit with!! So soft and squishy! I'm really enjoying it. I was going to make Elektra from the same book with it, but it turned out that I didn't have quite enough yardage for it. With this pattern, I have a bit too much yardage, but I'm just going to make the shawl/scarf bigger. I've knit up to the point where the pattern says to start the lace, but I'm going to follow her instructions for making it bigger and knit more garter stitch.



I've also done lots of spinning and spinning related stuff. I plied and set the green yarn I'd been working on (it turned out to be merino), and I'm very happy with it. I'll be casting that on soon, as a pair of Deep In The Forest mittens. The pattern is printed and I'm all ready to go!









I was worried that the dark green would be a lot thinner than the light green, but I think it'll be fine. Setting the yarn seemed to make it a lot more similar to my eyes at least.

I also spun and plied all of the pink fibre that I had.





This is corridale - I'm going to make some sort of scarf/shawl thing from it but I haven't decided yet. It turned out to be somewhat of an aran weight - I'll have to search Ravelry and see what patterns are there. I had quite a bit less of the dark pink, so I still have some light pink singles sitting in my basket. I'm going to go back to my LYS and see if they've got more of the dark pink, then spin that up to go with it (there's enough of the light pink left to make that worthwhile)



And so, with all that spun, I was still itching to spin something, so I went back to some cream coloured corridale that I'd spun singles of ages ago. So long ago, that the twist is completely unenergised just now. So I'm plying them up, and I'll see what they turn out like.

And that's another WIP Wednesday! I've been a lot busier that I thought I had, and I've still got 2 FO posts to write :D

FO: Commuter Mitts

I finished my Commuter Mitts!



Pattern: Commuter Mitts by Stephanie Sun

Yarn: Sirdar Click Aran With Wool

Needles: 4.5mm (I had to go up a couple of sizes to get gauge)

The buttons were in my button stash - I think they came off of a jacket of the bf's, or his grandfather's - I'm not sure exactly. I know they came from the grandfather's house, and they've been in this house forever. I nabbed 2 of them for these gloves (after asking permission, of course!). If he wants to use them for anything else, I can always take them off and use something else, but I'm liking the slightly militaristic look the metal buttons give to these gloves.



I really like these mitts! I love the foldover at the cuff - such a great design element.



The yarn knit up really nicely. It's an acrylic/wool blend, but it feels really nice, nicer than some of the other yarns I have with the exact same percentages of the fibres. It is more expensive than those yarns, admittedly, but still affordable. I'd definitely use it again, I really like the flecks of colour/heathering.



They're very easy and quick to make - the main reason it took a bit longer for me was because I always procrastinate on sewing on buttons. I sewed on buttons on the palm side too, so I could do the folding over the fingers thing that you can see on the pattern page, but I didn't take a photo of them like that.



My only (slight) quibble about the pattern is that it has afterthought thumbs instead of gusseted ones, but I didn't notice till I was at that point, and couldn't be bothered ripping back and working out a gusset. But really, they're comfortable, and the thumb is on the side of the hand, not on the palm, so I just went with it, and I do really like these mitts. I'd definitely knit this pattern again, probably still with the afterthought thumbs.



The only thing about knitting all these winter accessories is that I just can't wait till it's winter!! It's going to be like, 4 whole months before it's cold enough to wear all these things I've been making. I'll just have to pet them and look longingly at pictures of snow till then, lol!

Oops! Teddy Bear Hat Details

In all my excitement yesterday I forgot to link details about the hat! D'oh!

It's the Teddy Bear Hat by Diane Langan - which can be purchased at her etsy shop which is here.

I used Stylecraft Special Chunky for the main hat and the muzzle - the black yarn was DK acrylic that I held double, and I used a 6mm hook. I have to write all these details down or I know a couple of months from now I'll be wondering what I did :)

Uh oh, I just browsed through her shop and realised she has other critter hats - owl, raccoon, fox(!), hello kitty... I may be in trouble ;) That's as well as all the patterns I found on ravelry yesterday!

FO: The awesomely awesome bear hat!!!

Yes, I am super pleased with this hat!!! Could you tell? ;)





I actually finished the crocheting a couple of weeks ago, but I was worried about how the sewing would turn out. The muzzle looked a little small, and the nose looked a little large, but last night I decided to just bite the bullet and sew it. I did the muzzle first, stretched it out, pinned it on and sewed it, and it turned out fine! The ears were next (sewing the whole thing involved a few dozen trips to the mirror and back to check placement, but it was worth it), then the eyes and nose.

I think when sewing things made of bits, I get all worried, but then spend so much time checking the placement of each bit that it works out fine. Going back and forward to the mirror to check every piece was a bit of a pain, but I'm so pleased with how it turned out!

Seriously, I've been walking around the house with this hat on all last night, and the first thing I did this morning was to put it on and look at myself in the mirror. This hat makes me smile, which is what makes it so awesome! :D







I'm so excited, I can't wait till it's winter. Why does it have to be July just now *pouts pathetically and stamps foot* I want cold weather so I can wear it outside!!! :D

WIP Wednesday - Pink Bubblegum

This week I've been spinning :)



This is baby pink Corriedale fibre spun into singles on my spindle. I spun this at spinning guild on Saturday. I'm using my heavier spindle, which I'm not terribly good at using, so the singles are a bit uneven, but I'm not terribly bothered. It'll all even out in the plying (I hope) ;)



The colour of this fibre spun up is sooooo pink! My next door neighbour's girls would just love this, it's so pink (they're a bit obsessed with that colour, which makes for interesting viewing when they have all their toys out in the front garden). I've got a darker pink which I think I'm going to ply it with, to mute the girliness a little.

I've spun three lots of 25g so far. I have 100g of this, and 100g of the darker pink, and I'm going to spin them all together, and make some sort of scarf, I think. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I spun 25g, but didn't get any done yesterday. I'm not taking part in this year's Tour de Fleece, but I do want to get this spun up quickly.

I've also been plying the green yarn I was spinning a few weeks ago. I think the two greens have turned out to be different weights though :( The light green seems to be a bit heavier than the dark green, so I don't know if I'll be able to combine them to make mittens. I think I'll just have to buy more dark green fibre, it's the only thing for it, lol! The dark green I've got just now might have to go with that dark pink that I spun intending it to be for the galileo mittens, but it was too thin... I don't know. I've still got to ply the last lot then set the twist, so I'll decide after that.