malinmerino

I told you before, I got a pattern published in the SnB 2008 calendar, and today, on Friday the 13th, you can find it! It looks like this:

Designed by Malin Walkeby       malinmaskros.blogg.se

Skully Socks
ONE SIZE
MATERIALSMarks & Kattens Safir Superwash 100% superwash wool (Swedish worsted weight or American light sport weight); (50 g/127 m), 2 balls 504 black (MC), 1 ball 500 white (CC)
US 3 (3.25 mm) and US 1 (2.25 mm) double-pointed needles (set of 5) GAUGE27 sts and 30 rows = 4" in chart patt using larger needles DIRECTIONS
LEG: With MC and smaller needles, CO 72 sts. Distribute evenly onto 4 needles. Pm and join.
Work in k1, p1 rib for 2". Work 2 rnds St st.
Change to larger needles and work in chart patt as foll:
Join CC and work 36 rnds of chart. Rep rnds 17-36 if desired. Work rnds 37-46.
Break off CC. Cont with MC only, work 2 rnds St st.
Next rnd: *K2, k2tog, k3, k2tog; rep from * around-56 sts.

HEEL: Flap worked over 28 sts on needles 1 and 4. Sl all sts onto one needle.
Row 1 (RS): Sl 1, k27.
Row 2: Sl 1, p27.
Rep rows 1 and 2 until heel flap meas 2", ending with a WS row.
TURN HEEL:
Row 1 (RS): Sl 1, k15, skp, k1; turn.
Row 2: Sl 1, p5, p2tog, p1; turn.
Row 3: Sl 1, k6, skp, k1; turn.
Row 4: Sl 1, p7, p2tog, p1; turn.
Cont as est, working 1 more st before dec every row until all heel sts have been worked, omitting k1 and p1 at end of last 2 rows-16 sts.
With free needle, k8.
With needle 1, k8, PU and k10 sts along side of heel flap; k across needles 2 and 3; with needle 4, PU and k10 sts along other side of heel flap, k8-64 sts.
SHAPE GUSSET:
Rnd 1: Knit.
Rnd 2: K to last 3 sts of needle 1, k2tog, k1; k across needles 2 and 3; on needle 4, k1, skp, k to end of rnd.
Rep rnds 1 and 2 until you have 56 sts.

FOOT: Work even in St st until foot measures 5" or 3" less than desired finished length.

TOE: Dec rnd: *On needle 1, k to last 2 sts, skp; on needle 2, k2tog, k to end; rep from * on needles 3 and 4.
Rep dec rnd every 8th rnd twice more, then every rnd until 8 sts rem.

FINISHING: Break off yarn and thread tail through rem sts. Draw tight and fasten securely. Weave in ends. Block lightly.

I don´t do much knitting at the moment, some of it is absolutely seasonal, some is my current obsession with ATCs (artist trading cards). As I said before, I can only obsess about one thing at the time. But I did knit a pair of socks, from the lovely yarn I got from Iris in our last swap. I used the Simple Ginny Sock pattern as a base, and then I altered it to my liking. I think it ended up looking rather nice, and very much "jeans socks" - I can´t wait for fall!

 

I have finished the socks from the Yarn Pirate yarn I got, and I think they turned out quite nice!





This are the Calamity ones, and these are the Kona:



I love the colours on both, they were a pure joy to knit with, too bad they are wool, or I would fill my stash with the stuff! Thank you so much Erika! I can´t begin to tell you how much I appreciate your generosity!

I´m test knitting a sock pattern for Sock Madness, and for the first time I´m knitting toe-up. Let me tell you - getting the toe done is no picnic! Before I could even get the stitches on the needle! Hope the second sock gets easier...

I mentioned sock clubs in my previous post, I thought I should elaborate some on that topic. For you who haven´t heard of it: a sock club is a subscription on sock yarn, often from a smaller yarn brand, often with some extra goodies in the packages. The yarns are exclusive for the sock club, and as far as I´ve seen - to die for!

Here´s some of the ones I´ve seen:

Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Rockin´ Sock Club"

Make 1 yarns "m1´s Sock Club"

The Yarn Tree "Sock Club"

I Knit "Sock Club" (UK based)

DiscountYarnSale.com "Hill Country Yarn Sock Club" ($60 + ev. international shipping for tree packages, which makes it fairly cheap)

"Woolgirl Sock Club"

Fyberspates "Sock Club" (UK based - I´m really considering this one)

Yarn Grove "Tofutsie Sock Yarn Club" (all slots are filled through April 2008)

Zen String "Sock Yarn Club" ($90 + additional international shipping makes this one of the cheaper as well)

Yarn Pirate "Booty Club" (I´m so tempted to do this one!)

There you have it, a pick out of the big pile that is sock clubs (google and you´ll get thousandsof hits, of course not all clubs, but several). On the top of my wish list is the "Booty Club" and "Rockin´ Sock Club", but just trying one would be fun.

I don´t knit a lot of kid´s clothes, because I don´t have any children. I usually just make something for friends/sisters when they´ve just had a new baby, but that´s pretty much it. But now, my hands has been bitten by the knitting bug, and I don´t have much yarn (the few skeins I have wants to become a stash - I want to be a person with a huge stash, now it´s only a few hanks and skeins, and some are not for knitting), and the sock yarn remnants I have don´t work for making stashbusters, so it´s becoming kid´s socks. A friend had a baby a couple of months ago, and I haven´t finished his blanket yet, so I made socks too. My sister says that I haven´t ever knit anything for her son, so he´s getting socks too, but I had less yarn than I thought, so I have to mix in another colour way (red/orange/brown mixed with pink/blue/purple/green/yellow - and it actually work - I´m doing alternate rows, so it´s not stripey, just varigated), hope they don´t find the socks too girly. And I hope they fit, I made them to fit a five-year-old, and my nephew is 3, but with big feet. Hope they fit (fingers crossed!)!

And talking about my nephew, I have to babysit him on Sunday morning (I have to leave from home at 6am), the only day in the week I have off. Do I have to say I´m not that happy about it?

I don´t even know how it happened, but suddenly there I was, casting on for another pair of socks, and a couple hours in front of the tv produced half a leg. It´s the first time I use bamboo dpn´s, and the first time with Regia cotton, and I don´t know if it´s the yarn or the needles that make the gauge looser than usual. Maybe it´s the combination? But the colours is turning out quite nice, and the pattern looks like it could look good as well, yo´s spiralling around the leg, very simple, but the yarn is rather busy, so that´s a good one.

I think this is a great idea, unfortunately I´m too late, and it´s not for sale anymore. However - the Red Cross used to have kits for socks, so you could knit a pair of WW2 socks of your own. Hopefully, they´ll get new kits in the store, if they don´t, feast your eyes on this, and beat yourself up for not getting a kit of your own in time.



I really like the box, and the colour of the yarn - very "army"!

No, silly - I didn´t knit two pairs of socks in one night - I finished two pairs in one night. Last night, I finished the socks I made with the yarn I traded for my birthday, I tried to make them with a lace pattern, but the print was so busy, so they ended up plain, but with a lace rib cuff. I also finished my stash-busters, with yarn from the newest socks I´ve knitted. The yarn works surprisingly well with the other yarn I knitted them with, the only thing is that the latest part is a bit lighter - hopefully it´s not that noticable when I wear them - they are very crazy striped, and I can´t believe that the colours all worked so well together!





If you want to knit socks for yourself, try this pattern - very pretty!

I´ve finished one of the striped socks, and I am quite happy with the result. The line of yo´s breaks up the stripes in a rather nice way, which actually makes it look a bit like I´ve been struggeling with intarsia blocks. And they fit perfectly - I have found the perfect number of cast on stitches (even though it looks frightenly narrow at first), and a nice, round toe. Now, I can play with all the patterns I want, because I know the sock will fit perfectly every time. How great is that?! I´m thinking cables, or maybe lace for my next pair, or some kind of combination, possibly. Or maybe, I´ll use one of the lovely patterns that are already out there. The options are endless!

I finished my pink tiny cable/rib socks last night, and they turned out quite nice, even though I didn´t fancy the yarn much - the fit is perfect, and from a bit of a distance, they don´t look as busy. And I immediately cast on another pair, in green/blue/orange. These stripes I like much better, and the colours are nice together as well. I´m doing a really simple pattern, simply rows of yo´s down the leg, with broad bands of stockinette in between, and it works really well with the yarn. These socks are much more fun to knit, ´cause this time it´s actually fun to see the stripes emerge. The only downside is the heel, I didn´t want to do a heel flap, but instead work it in the round, to get better stripes, but I didn´t have any pattern at home for that kind of heel and that yarn weight. So I need to go look for more sock patterns. Poor me...

More good things - I scheduled for another swap with Iris in the UK this winter, entirely focused on yarn and fabric - yay!

Quite a while ago, I saw a site with patterns for differnet kinds of socks, in different lenghts - not lengths of the legs, but of the feet. Socks for flip-flops, among others, and I can´t find it again (it was in a place, where I thought it was real easy to locate again - ha, ha to me!). So now I´m searching for socks! If anybody has any idea where I might find any patterns, let me know!
I did find these, though:

Arizona flip-flop socks

Short-toed socklets

Toe socks

Tabi socks (hmm... wonder if this was the one I was looking for?)

What the heck - go searching for socks, period - try these links! Or these for vintage sock patterns.

I finished the socks for my sister this morning, and gave them to her today, and fortunately she liked them. They are a bit big, but since she´ll be wearing them on top of thinner socks, that works just fine. I also started knitting a pair for me, with tiny cable ribbing, they will be nice, I think, but would look better in a yarn with "cleaner" stripes, this yarn has stripes, and "fair isle" and streaks of colour, it´s kinda busy, and I´m not sure if I like it (actually, the same problems as the red yarn for my sister) - maybe in a totally pattern free sock, but I want to make socks with patterns - I want to try lace and cables and different ribbings - I´m sick of plain ol´socks.





I got some decoupage paper from a friend for my birtday, it was beautiful, perfect colours and prints, but since I don´t do paper crafts, she gave me permission to exchange it for something else, so yesterday I did just that, and came home with a couple of skeins of Regia sock yarn, in a very 80s colour - pink, orange, white and grey, I think it´s this one:

Hmm... It kinda screams "plain ol´socks" as well...

I´ve started knitting socks for my sister, I must say her choice of yarn colour surpriced me - I would´ve never bought a red yarn for her socks. I guess that prooves that we never really know someone! I use a lace/rib pattern, which works well with the self patterning yarn, I hope she agrees. But I hope the colours I have for me stripes better - I don´t like how this yarn looks knitted up.



If you want to knit fab socks, try something like this (click the pics!):

 

 

They turned out quite nice, if I might say so myself, even though the colours are pooling underneath the second sock, and they are a bit too big (remember, my first try in cotton!), so I hope they will shrink a bit when I wash them. And I tried grafting for the first time - first attempt was not easy, I can tell you, second toe went a little bit better, so my hat off to all of you grafters out there - it takes some skill!

Last summer I got some candy coloured cotton yarn from my SP8 spoiler, very nice and pastel-y. I made some amigurumi keyrings with some of it, but didn´t know what to do with the rest, since I don´t do a lot of cotton knitting. But yesterday I started on socks, with a diamond lace pattern, and they are turning out really nice! The leg became a bit to wide, hopefully it´ll shrink a bit when washed, but even if it doesn´t, it´ll work just fine! I don´t want to go to work, I want to be at home, in my couch, knitting candy socks!

Ok, I´m done, I´ve re-knit two pairs of socks, making them a little bit smaller. So what do I do next? I have to do something, my hands are itching to knit (somehow crochet, felties or anything else works - strange), so I dig into my sock leftovers. I try to be careful, so I made the legs really short, only about 2", but still, I am in no way certain that the yarn will be enough for two socks. How´s that for knitting on the edge? But, so a far, the colours look great together, even though I still have to add the loudest one - maybe it will look like crap then. But very happy with it so far, and fingers crossed really hard - I hope the yarn will be enough! Even though there won´t be two identical socks, hope there will be two socks, period!

UPDATE: Just what I thought - the yarn wasn´t enough, I´ll have to wait to finish the last half of the last sock utnil I´ve knitted more socks, and have got more leftovers. Crap.