Tough love

Impuls is the word i'd like to use in describing this situation. Listening to poscasts, reading blogs, I heard about the rave and got the crave for Socks that Rock. Several skeins walked into my stashroom, little indulgess in relatively exclusive yarn. Last week i was on a starting high and grabbed a couple of skeins, showed them to my husband to be and made him choose.





Lagoon, STR mediumweight.

And that brings me to one of the love factors. I LOVE the colors. They look just perfect in the skein. So perfect, i'm allmost affraid to knit with this yarn. What if i'm just not good enough to knit this yarn to it's full potential?

Impuls: casting on stockinette socks. I love knitting and wearing stockinette socks. I can grab them any time I want. At a meating, watching television, listening to podcasts. And they wear really great in boots.



Knitting with this yarn is though love. Love the pooling, love the stitches, but my hands... They just get really tired after a while. The yarn doesn't really have any stretch and likes to be knit on small metal needles. Not my favourite kind of needles. The result, however, is so worth the effort.




Concerns, while I knit the second sock. I have knit with STR before and both the pairs of socks have suffered severe colorloss after only a couple of washes. They do wear relatively well for 100% merino socks, at least, on my feet and are still one of my favourites. Let's hope hubby will get a lot wear out of these.

Missing

I'm still here, i still Knit and now i have blogger on my iPhone!
CU soon!

Let's come togheter, right now, oh yeah...

Started out with a skein of yarn in a really nice colorway. Green, dreamy, fairytale like. Ordered it online and the moment I had it in my hands I knew this yarn would be on my feet one day. I had no idea however what pattern would be good for this yarn so it marinated in the stash for a couple of years...


Yarn: Araucunia Ranco Multi

The yarn has a nice sturdy feeling to it. It's variegated, but not too variegated to obscure a cable. A textured pattern would actually emphisize the nice colorjob. So, when I stumbled upon The Eclectic Sole I knew I had 'hit the jackpot'.

Rivendell

Simple knitted bodice?

Way back in 2006 I was a new knitter with big plans. I went to a crafting market and bought Noro Silk Garden. It was like holding the holy grale of knitting. I'd never spend this much money on yarn - I did on a later date - and I spend a lot of time to pick out the right pattern. This was pre-ravelry, you know.

So, I picked up the pattern for the Simple Knitted Bodice and started knitting fall 2006.

What went wrong?

1. I didn't have the right needles. Well, I did have the right size, but they were cheap and not very comfortable. I struggled with stiff cables and too pointy needles.

2. I can't count. So I had to rip back several times because I didn't have the right number of stitches cast on.

3. I can't count. So I forgot to increase in the right places. Stitchmarkers helped a great deal after I realised I can't count.

4. I didn't pick the right size.

5. The sleeves were too flary for me, so I had to improvise and rip back. Improvise and rip back.

But, 5 years later, here she is:

Grandma would be proud

Hubby got some pretty socks out of Kureyon Sockyarn last year. They were a present for him when he moved in with me. I was pretty pleased with the way they turned out, Nice colorway, great fit. I knew the yarn is not as sturdy as Opal or Regia, so I took some black Regia for the heels and toes and I handwashed them. It wasn't enough for these socks to be as durable as other socks.

I had darned them before, but the ball of the foot was totally worn out. What to do now? Throw them away after sparsely a year of wear? And the legs and heel were fine, wouldn't it be a waste of work?

So, I took a pair of scissors.

And with some carefull picking up stitches again with some very bright and colorfull left-overs...

I worked up new toes.

Grandma, darner extraordinair, would be proud.

Echo Flowers

Many many moons ago I was hooked on Etsy and bought a lot of yarn. This is one of them:



Brand: Chewy Spaghetti Bucatini (discontinued)
440m/100grams
Colorway: Pragmatic
100% merino

Last year I created a little basket of sockyarn from the stash and put this skein in it too. Because the yarn is pretty thin, I didn't want to make socks out of it. So I wandered all year how to use this nice yarn wisely. One day I was surfing on ravelry and found it: The Echo Flower Shawl

Socktober

Slowly the leaves are turning golden, red and brown. The door to garden gets closed again. Outside it's getting colder, but inside it's still nice. I'm on the couch with a blanket, waiting for the coffee to get ready.

I've cast on a new pair of socks last week. You know, together with rain and wind Socktober has come. Time to grab some nice yarn for the mystery socks of 'Through the loops".


Socks that rock light weight, colorway: Knitty Rocks

So far it's going great with two socks on one needle. I was a bit worried about getting the yarn getting tangled, but it's going allright. Friday the next clue is going to be released.