I am using yarn from Fiber Lily (Ebb colourway – I originally bought it to make a shawl, but given that I don’t wear shawls I decided to make socks instead).
Like everyone else in the world, I am in lock-down. Not as harsh as other countries, at this stage it is mostly voluntary. Strongly advised to stay at home; and cafes, restaurants, gyms, any place where people congregate are closed. The borders are closed. People are still being selfish and incredibly irresponsible.
So time for a new knitting project. I am going to knit socks (using a lovely red Malabrigo -it’s called Cereza). I am going to put this on the leg
I am really pleased I had a go at knitting intarsia in the round – not a fan of the ‘seam’ you can see on the back (see below).
See the seam on the right?
My first heart was much better than my second heart. I think it was because I left all of the weaving in to the end on the first one, but did as I went with the second, which made my tension a bit crap.
I do like the different coloured cuff, heels and toes, so I will do that again. I am keen to try stranded colour work socks, but next up I am going to knit my own version of Helen Stewart’s Shell Cottage Socks (I will use the stitch pattern, but my own ‘recipe’).
I am keen to improve my knitting skills and colour work always looks so lovely. These socks are from the Boost Your Knittingbook. I was intrigued by the idea of intarsia in the round.
It came together quite well – I am disappointed about the reverse side. Despite my best efforts there is a noticeable ‘join’. It is on the inside of your leg (when you are wearing the socks).
The issue of the join is that you are making one stitch out of two, so it is always going to have more yarn than a normal stitch and it just stands out.
I have been spending all of my craft time on Mr Sewwitty’s birthday sock – this is the first one and I still have a bit to go before the toe (I made him try it on today).
A knot in my yarn!
Annoyingly, the yarn had a knot in it – I cut the knot and weaved in both ends as I went, but still annoying.
This is just a plain sock – although it has a twisted rib and eye of partridge heel, so not completely plain.
I have started knitting the Heartgyle socks from Boost Your Knitting – the intarsia heart is going well, but the getting it to work in the round is not going so well (see below)
Back of Heartgyle sock
You can see where I have been doing the yarn overs and the turn. The instructions do say
You will see that the turn between right side and wrong side creates a small ridge in the work but it is not hugely obvious.
And they have an image and it’s true on their sock it isn’t very obvious. I can see that my later turns are better – more discreet if you like, but now I need to decide if I rip it back and start again. I am leaning towards ripping back.
There are some great tutorials on how to do this on You Tube – here.
I think the method is good it’s just my execution.
I have almost finished this year’s Christmas socks – I wanted to get going early to ensure they were finished in time.
The yarn is ‘Tinsel’ from Little Yellow Cat (on Etsy). It is a merino, bamboo and silk mix and feels fabulous. Strangely, when I made the skein into a ball it was in two pieces. One about 40g and the other about 60g, so the small one was not quite enough for one sock.
I have pretty much made up my own pattern, but I am using the SKYP stitch pattern from the SKYP socks.
I finished one sock for June and one sock for July. I went away for a week (to here) and I wanted to see if I could complete a pair of socks, so I started the July pair (I had already finished the June sock). Clearly, I can’t get a pair of socks finished in a week.
The yarn for the June sock (right sock) is King Cole Zig Zag and the lace pattern is from the Knitting Vintage Socksbook. It is the lace pattern from the Evening Stockings for a Young Lady Pattern. I just used the lace pattern and did the sock in my usual way.
The yarn for the July sock (left sock) is Old Roses by The Yarnkeeper and it is a plain vanilla sock (with such beautiful yarn why spoil it with a pattern?)
I have started the second sock of both and will probably focus on finishing the July sock first.
This is my second attempt at my June Sock. I started with a K3P1 rib, but I didn’t really like how it looked. I have unravelled and now I am doing a K2P2 rib.
I don’t really like the way the colours work in this yarn, but it is in the stash and I want to use it.
I am using 2.75mm needles as well (which is unusal, but I couldn’t find my 2.25mm needles).