Little Purl of the Orient

Old Pathway for This Sock Knitter

During one of the previous knitting meet ups with my local pals, I had a chance to look at Ingrid's New Pathway for Sock Knitters. What a mind boggling array of new sock architectures! One day, when I'm not so work-tired, I might invest in the book and attempt one of those techniques but right now, the old pathway is the way to go for me.

Figure 8 cast on 16 stitches, increase until the sock fit my around the foot (in this case, 52 st) and then mindless stocking stitch, my favourite no-wrap short-row heel and more stocking stitch, ribbing and sewn cast off.

Ta-da. A new pair of tall socks for JY. Aren't they lovely?

JY has not been able to take them off during the nights and the socks have been keeping her feet warm this past cold winter. I wish there was more self-patterning or striping yarn in my sock stash for more socks like these.

Details: 1 ball of Patons Self Patterning yarn and some Sundara sock yarn leftover from this pair Mad Color Weave socks. Clover size 1 needles.

So I got 2 pairs done this year. Time to think of the March pair.

And the crochet slipper found her mate too. I'm going to give them to eldest sil. A recap, the pattern is from this Japanese pattern book, the yarn is Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals in the Sunbaked Earth colourway, and I used size 8/0 hook.

There are a few more small FOs that are still not yet photographed. On top of that are lots visits to the frog pond visits. Next post, maybe.

Foot Note

I've finally arrested my procrastination and finished the first Mad Color Weave sock. Not that I'm not enjoying the pattern or the yarn (delish Sundara yarn) but knitting the toe involved Decision Making, having to make up my mind if the foot length is now long enough to begin the toe. Being one who is not very good with measuring, coupled with too much thinking during the day for work led to a stalemate and the poor sock-to-be just sat there in the pile for months. Now that one is done, the second sock hopefully could be knitted in a relatively shorter period of time, provided that I don't stray.

It looks like it might be a difficult task. I've added more WIPs to the already ample pile. Here's one lonely slipper waiting for its mate. I was thrilled to find a simple enough pattern to showcase the lovely Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals (this is the Sunbaked Earth colourway).

And the pattern is from this lovely little book which has 8 irresistible footwear patterns like these:

And in the earlier book that contained the crochet scarf pattern are these slippers. The Japanese just seem to have a thing for these foot warmers.

These slippers also attracted me to add this book to my library.

Now that we've reached the 'foot' of the year, (and what an eventful year this has been) hope that you'll enjoy viewing these knitted/crocheted footwear as much as I do.

Happy 2008!

Sending out a little sunshine

JY's current favourite colour is yellow because it reminds her of the sunshine. This post didn't make it for Socktoberfest for me, hectic, hectic work schedule and I know I still owe lots of people emails, sorry. Anyway, here are a pair of Conwy Socks are for Olga, hoping to bring some sunshine into her world and keep her warm this cold season. See them on her feet here.

The pattern is from Nancy Bush's Knitting on the Road. And I love to knit the little cables. It is not obvious here but I messed up the toes. The yarn is Rio de la Plata, washable merino. I highly suspect the washable property as the yarn end from the cast on was already felting when I finish knitting the sock. But I do love the subtle colour changes in the yarn.

With some leftover sock yarn, I doubled it with an odd ball of lime yellow sports weight yarn to make little hats for charity. I love the mottled effect of doubling two different yarns. A knitted one and a crocheted one. I might still have some yarn to make a small pom pom for one of the hats. Hope they'll bring some sunshine to some little kiddos too.

There's another pair of socks on the needles now, the Mad Color Weave Sock in Sundara sock yarn. Both pattern and yarn are beyond delectable and I'm having such a hard time concentrating on the Minimalist Cardigan. But I shall.

I got some sunshine myself too. A lovely piece of yellow elephant fabric from Joy from her recent trip to Tokyo.

And the biggest sunshine of all is the wonderful news that nephew has his port for chemo removed from his body! The latest CT scan after the surgery showed very positive progress and there's no more need for chemotherapy. A million cheers!! Thanks very, very much for your all warm thoughts and kind words these past months. We'll continue to wish a good road to full recovery for the little fighter.

Have you Monkeyed?

For a moment while taking photos of my own sock-clad feet, the image of the super versatile acrobats in the Beijing Acrobatics Troupe which we saw back in Easter came to my mind. It definitely would have helped if I'm half as malleable. Sock knitters who take their own sock/feet photos should know what I'm talking about. Long story short, only 1 modeled shot to show you as the rest came out rather blur with my hands shakey trying to bend over this way and that.

Monkey socks, free pattern from Knitty, which has taken over Blogsphere after the sensational Jaywalker and Pomatomus socks, among others. They are knitted for my friend, O. After washing and blocking, the Wildfoote (Tom Cat colourway) yarn does become less synthetic and nicer to touch. I used Clover 3s for the ribbing and Clover 2s for the main part. Very trouble-free knit, the stitch pattern is interesting and easy to remember and I just wanted to keep going.

So here's one a stationary (but rather over-exposed) shot.

Sock 64 and little WIPs

The second sock went really fast. The cooler weather this week (which means dry palms for me) allows good progress to be made on my daily commutes and nothing is quicker than mindless stocking stitch plus some ribbing. Now I have a pair of 64-st socks. And the foot is 64 rows long.

The pattern is Wendy's toe-up gusset heel socks (pdf) pattern. Yarn used is Regia Bamboo Colour (#1065). I used the new Clover aluminum 1s that Maryann gave me and I'm sure those made the knitting speedier too.

Adaptations:
Cast on: I used my preferred figure 8 cast on. Really convenient and easy to execute.
Leg: Threw in some K3, P1 ribbing as the Bamboo yarn is rather inelastic so ribbing should make the legs huggier.

How long to knit the leg? I read somewhere that the perfect leg length is equal to the foot length when the sock is folded at the heel. And coincidentally, that is 64 rows of ribbing for this pair.

As for the cast-off, again my preferred method of sewn cast-off (EZ style). For the first sock, being lazy to get off my butt to go get my darining needle, I did a regular cast off but it turned so tight I had to undo it and re-sewn cast it off.

If you know me, you'll know that leftovers bother me a lot. I need to know that the leftovers have found good uses or I cannot stop thinking things up. Look at my bunch of reddish WIPs.

I've got 11g and 12g respectively leftover from the 2 balls of Regia Bamboo and I'm experimenting to see if they'll be enough for some very cute Saartje booties (pdf), knitting together with a strand of Rowanspun 4 ply leftover from the Tumbling Blocks cushion. That's the WIP at the top left.

Here are some other footsie patterns that I would like to try:
- Magic 28 Sock (pdf)
- Simple Shoes
- Ruby
- Infant Socks
- Crochet booties

So, please feel free to share if you have good patterns, links, ideas for leftovers thick or thin and they don't have to be for the feet only.

Some links, if you haven't visited Knitting Daily, do check it out, it's a good free Interweave pattern source.

If you love knitting squares for charity or have yarn to spare, check out Wrap with Love posted at Whip Up.

Some Sock Talk

While Joy just finished 3(!) pairs of socks, I completed a single one*. Well, that is if you count 2 halves equal one sock. And speaking of whom, hop over to Joy's blog to see the blanket that Joy, Marjorie and I knitted for Eva's wedding.

My colleague, O, who knitted the Bow-knot Scarves for my kids has been asking me if there's any sock yarn that is not so warm. She isn't asking me to knit her socks just asking about sock yarn but I feel like knitting her a pair. So I'm experimenting with the Regia Bamboo (from Joy) using Wendy's new toe-up gusset heel socks pattern.

Just look at those beautiful colours of the bamboo yarn.

I'd always thought that a pair of socks needs to be at least 72 sts in sock yarn to just fit my (and also O's) rather generous calves. So every time I see a 60-something sock pattern, I hold back, no matter how much I like the pattern. Wendy's pattern is written for both 64 st and 72 st and I thought if 64 st is not big enough, then I'll just continue to increase until I hit 72 st. Either my perception is wrong or my knitting must have loosened, 64 st on Clover 1s is already big enough and turned out too roomy for O. Don't ask me about gauge, I didn't measure.

This heel is interesting to make, there are no stitches to pick up and no short rows save for the heel turn. And look at the sock blocker peeking from there, it's handmade by the resourceful Maryann. The tutorial can be found here.

Instead of ripping back the too-long bamboo sock, I started another sock. It's the 64-st Monkey that I've been dying to knit. If it fits my shapely calf, it should fit O's but it'll be a warm pair in wool. The yarn I'm using is Brown Sheep Wildfoote in the Tom Cat colourway. There is not a lot of discussion about this sock yarn. This is a nice colourway, with a strand of charcoal grey, slate and mauve twisted together. But the synthetic content in it is a bit pronounced and the yarn on the whole feels not quite yarny enough.

*I've since finished the first Regia bamboo sock and it's really big. Wendy's pattern tells us to knit the foot until 2-2.5" less than desired length before knitting the heel but the sock turns out far too long. I think I'll start the heel 3" before desired length for the next pair. Or maybe I'll try Wendy's even newer slip-stitch version.

BTW, the new Knitty is up. Go see the beautiful creation, Zinzin, by the beautiful and talented Olga.

Uptown Boot Socks

Remember my random fact #6? I have a digital weighing scale but it is nicely tucked in the high hanging cabinet in the bedroom and not fully made good use of.

Case in point, it would have helped if I had weighed out the hank of Sleeping Dragon sock yarn before I started knitting and then fretting that I would have insufficient yarn. Look at these 2 balls, the smaller one is from pulling out the extra repeats of the first leg, the bigger one is the leftover. It is apparent that I need not have ripped.

Without further ado, here they are, the Uptown Boot Socks for my friend, P. We haven't met but P is always there to offer me comfort and advice for sewing and other things in life through her emails. She even sent me a very beautiful watercolour painting of my 2 girls which is being framed now.

The pattern from IK Winter 2003 and also Favourite Socks. The mods are: Double-start cast on (which is a happy coincidence), and a shorter leg than called for. A closer look here at the stitch pattern.

The yarn is a joy to knit with. It is 100% washable merino and what a lovely, yarn-y yarn it is. I wish I know where to get more. In my earlier euphoria while knitting with it, I mentioned that it doesn't pool but looking at this photo, it seems to be pooling ever so subtly.

I've moved on to other socks, I think I caught the sockitis from Joy and Terhi who are knitting really fabulous socks.

Here are some recent patterns that I like:

Marigold Socks

Crystalline Lattice Socks

WIPs and Yummy Yarns

The Uptown Boot Socks have come to a point where I'm starting to wonder about yardage, the probable insufficiency, that is. Long story short, I cast on and knitted the second leg instead of ripping the first leg right away to see if my worry is founded. As you can see, I've turned the heel for the second sock and I've opted for a shorter leg (6 inches instead of 8 inches long). I hope I would have enough yarn like this. The Sleeping Dragon yarn is very nice to work with. It reminds me of Lorna's Laces Sheperd Sock and the best part of all is, there's no pooling whatsoever.

Work has resumed on the tea cosy. Yes, it's a tea cosy, and could you guess which pattern is it? Thanks to Olga who sent the rescue yarn. The Karabella Gossamer that I ordered from ebay didn't turn up but the seller was kind enough to give me a refund. I should really hurry up on this otherwise our friend's tea would not be getting cold so easily even without the cosy as the weather has really warmed up a lot these days.

Not only has Olga sent me the sparkly mohair, she sent along some magnificent Habu Cashmere Nep and Tsumugi silk too! And then there are also the magazines.

I'm sure you want a closer look at the Habu.

Any idea what I could use this precious little bundle of Cashmere Nep? Click on this photo to see how tiny it is. Any suggestions would be gladly welcome.

Tsumugi Silk. To be turned into a shawl. I have a feeling it would grow up to be a Shetland Triangle one day.

The last Blue and Grey

Have your days (and nights) suddenly become shorter? Mine certainly have and it was almost impossible for me to come to this space. The storms came today and the temperature suddenly plunged by substantial degrees to pull out the woolies again but my Maggie Tweed is still not done. I'm still catching up on my blues and greys and here goes.

Catching up might not be quite correct as I actually started something new. I'm one who never wins at any lucky draw. But look! This hank of Sleeping Dragon Sock Yarn managed to find its way to my home, thanks to Jennifer who drew my name from the list of participants that completed and posted their cably knits for the FallcableKAL2006. My mil, on the other hand, is a person who wins at all kind of lucky draws but that's for another day.

This colourway, called Pool, is just my type of colours and I can't wait to knit it up into a pair of socks for my friend, P. Now which pattern? There are at least a dozen sock patterns that I'm dying to knit but when it's time to choose one, I just can't make up my mind. I want to knit them all but of course I've got to choose a right type of pattern for this slightly variegated yarn.

Rpm? Or Monkey? Rpm? Merino Lace Socks? No, Monkey. Denmark? No, no, Canal du Midi but would it be too variegated? Ok, let's cast on for Rpm.

Just when I reached for the needles and yarn, my hands went to the Knitting on the Road and cast on for Canal du Midi. The images of Kathy's gorgeous pair just stuck to my mind. I made the double-start cast on as written for the pattern but had to do it 3 times as the stitches kept dropping during the first row which I always find it the most difficult row. After I completed 5 rows of the K2, P2 ribs, the yarn is looking too variegated for the stitch pattern. And the lesson learnt from my Embossed Leaves Socks came to mind.

BTW, some brave ones have been posting about their Knitting Nightmares at this Flickr Group.

I'd better change to another pattern and what else but another Grumperina inspiration. I hope the Uptown Boot Socks would work with this yarn. I haven't got the Favourite Socks book but I do have the Interweave Winter 2003 issue where this pattern was first published. And how convenient that this pattern also calls for 72 stitches and begins with K2, P2 ribbing just like the Canal du Midi sock, no need to rip back to scratch. I do like the double-start cast on, nice and stretchy. The 8 row repeat is made up of 6 rows of knit, and just 2 rows of cables and I'm enjoying the pattern.

That's the Blue and here's a glimpse of the Grey.

It's a request from our friend and the first part has been done ages ago. I've ordered yarn from an ebayer like a month ago to make the embellishment to complete this but the yarn got waylaid in the mail. Still waiting ... ...

Socks

Another thick-yarn sock done, all scrunched up and badly in need of a good block. One more to be knitted and I could cross another item off the list. This pair is intended for my mil. My initial idea was to knit the Cowgirl Socks from the IK Winter '06 but while flipping through Marjorie's knitting books last Saturday, the Log Cabin Socks from Handknit Holidays came across as a good idea.

This sock is knitted out of the last hank of Dyed in the Wool hand-dyed yarn I bought from ebay. If my memory is right, this batch of yarn was my first ebay purchase and I found an old photo on my hard disk. The 2 hanks on the right were knitted into Odessas and a stripey beanie, and I used the hank on the left (Pebble colourway) for this pair of Cable Twist Socks (pdf) for my sil.

Knitted over 42-st , these socks fit my size 6 feet, so I thought a 48-st Log Cabin Sock in the same DK weight yarn should fit my mil's size 4 feet despite all the cabling. It turned out that not all DK weights are created equal, the Azure is thinner than the Pebble and the Log Cabin Sock turns out rather tiny that I thought of giving this pair to my 6-year-old and knitting another pair for mil. And the ball of yarn is cutting really, really close. Then I sought help from my knitterly colleague, R, who also has tiny feet and the lone sock fits albeit a little teeny, weeny bit too short on the foot. 2 more rounds or even 1 would make a better fit. I'm forging ahead with the twin sock and see how far the yarn will go. If there's enough yarn, I'll just undo and re-knit the first sock toe.

And JY has been asking about her scarf too, I really should quickly get that done but the hank of Yarntini yarn seems to have incredible yardage and no end is in sight. Then there are 3 sweater patterns that I must immediately cast on … … the grey knitted coat from the earlier post is one of them.

It feels like cheating

Don't you feel odd to be knitting a sock in yarn thicker than fingering weight? I don't why I get that feeling, maybe because it works up so fast. I was (still am today) off from work at home and started to knit the Cable Twist Socks (pdf), and before I knew it, I got a sock! Incredible, all in a day (albeit I went to bed quite late finishing it up) and notwithstanding 3 false starts too!

There's this ball of Dyed in the Wool hand-dyed DK pure wool yarn lying around for ages and I thought maybe I could squeeze a pair of socks out of it. So I went toe-up with a figure-8 cast on, 16 sts which were increased to 42 sts, short-row heeled, a purl stitch added between cables somewhere mid-leg to accomodate the rather 'shapely' calves and then sewn cast off. Viola!

Another view and together with the start of the second sock. Toe-ups are great when you're unsure about the yarn amount and they so conveniently hide any unsightly unpedicured toes too, yay! In hindsight, I might have used Clover 4s (3.3mm) instead of Clover 5s (3.6 mm) and added a few more stitches so that the cables won't look so stretched out.

This pair of socks would not have happened if I haven't seen Grumperina's beautiful Happy Green. Thanks for the inspiration, Kathy! This pair of socks would be a Christmas present for my sil who has the same feet size as I. Won't it be great if all Christmas gifts get knitted up so fast?

Closing in on the gifts

Just a very quick post before going to bed after a tiring but fun day at the park. I sewed a little pouch to hold a gift for my friend. The base is crocheted using Bouton D'ore, Dune yarn. I've got lots of that in 4 or 5 different colours, originally meant to be knitted into a Rambling Rows Afghan which never happened.

The drawstring closure and a peek at what's inside.

Why, they are the K2, Seed 2 socks in Kissed, Sweet Georgia sock yarn. As the recipient's feet are smaller than mine, I didn't want to model them and stretch the socks out. 2 hanks of yarn, 60 sts using 2.7mm needles. No swirls for the second sock (on the left)...

Is it November?

Thank you very much for the wonderful comments on CY and her Trellis Cardigan. She is simply oblivious to what's going on in blogsphere and in fact very often, she's just happy when there's ice cream to eat, especially in hot and sunny Singapore. So is her sister.

And water to play in. The wonders of a carefree of childhood. And it is marvellous to see how well they are enjoying it all.

We all had fun at the Waterworks in the Science Centre. And I got a bit of time watching on the sidelines with my sock.

I chose to work with Sweet Georgia's sock yarn in the Kissed colourway. Love the colours but somehow, I couldn't get away with the pooling. This is the 5th cast on with different stitch numbers and patterns. I think I can live with the spirals, one earlier try led to pooling in blocks which I couldn't take.

The 'pattern' is Steph's K2, Seed 2 and I'm using the template of Ann Budd's generic one from her Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns. Nice and mindless holiday knitting. It did grew a bit more while still on vacation. Now I would have to call up my friend to get her foot length so that I could finish it up.

The holiday has gone by much too fast. It was wonderful to bask in the warmth of my family and old friends and equally delightful to meet up, shop and chat with Erin. Can you tell I'm already looking forward to our next vacation?

Lichen Black Socks, check

This pair feels like the fastest pair of socks that I've knitted. Despite being black and just ribbing, the socks got done in no time (not the 1-pair-in-2-days kind of quick but my type of slower quick, nevertheless). It was a mindless knit, I followed the Lichen pattern word for word until the toes, which were regular instead of the star toes as specified because I forgot to copy that page for the bus. I always make a copy of the pattern and shove it in my plastic knitting bag together with the knitting so that I don't have to bring the whole book with me on the bus.

Come to think of it, with regards to the plastic knitting bags, I should really go sew myself some nice drawstring ones, which would also allow me to use up my growing fabric stash. Killing two birds with one stone.

Seems like black is popping up everywhere. The new shop displays have been up since a couple of weeks ago and it's black, black and more black. You would have thought that I'm a seasoned on-the-road photographer given my FO on the streets photo. Not so, I felt a bit uneasy when I snapped this photo of my favourite window yesterday morning, I could just feel the security guard coming to snatch my camera but it was all my imagination. This is the Harvey Nichols window. Look, black and white skullies, and houndstooth! I'm so going to knit these patterns (but I don't know whatever for) this winter. And look at the spooky ghost faces in there, scared me for a moment (it is still the Hungry Ghost month nonetheless), turns out that it's just a reflection of the advertisement on the opposite wall.

Old habbit dies hard. Despite all the WIPs, I started something else.

Ebony and ivory

New bus knitting: black socks for the husband. Got to start preparing for the coming colder weather this year. This pair is meant for the husband to wear on his trips to colder parts of China so that he'll be constantly reminded of his knitterly wife and remember to look out for exotic Chinese yarns during those trips. Just kidding, I really don't need anymore yarn (this must be the greatest understatement of this blog). Let's see how long this leg of yarn acquisition control will last.

I'm using black Lang Jawoll sock yarn, which comes with a spool of reinforcement thread neatly tucked in the centre of the skein. And the white Bryspun needles are from Grumperina, the queen of knitting needles. They are great to knit with. Do you recall the regular bamboo sock needles becoming all bendy after a pair of socks is completed? Mine always do. Well, these Bryspun needles are naturally flexible and they just bend ever so gently according to your grip. I don't remember myself knitting much on this sock on the bus last week but I'm already up to the heel flap.

The pattern I'm using is the Lichen Ribbed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. I asked my husband to choose a pattern from that book and he nonchalantly pointed to this when the book conveniently opened on that page. Not trusting him, I asked JY (on a different day) to go through the book and she ended up choosing the same one too so I'm sticking with that.

Discussion about black ribbed socks definitely is not the most interesting topic. Why don't visit MJ's for her more exciting saga on man socks?

Many thanks for your lovely compliments on the Ribbed Wrap Top! I do like this style though it is not one that I wear often. However, sad to say that this knitted fabric is not wearing well; after a whole day's wear last week, it became rather saggy. Anyway, it is just knitting and if it would become unwearable one day, I'm all prepared to rip it out and reuse the yarn for something else.

My Tuesday is random

According to the Chinese calendar, yesterday (3rd July) was an auspicious day for cutting of fabric for dressmaking. The calendar is my mil's and I seldom consult it but feeling the need for some good luck, I'd plan to start cutting for the keyhole top (#1 from previous post) yesterday evening, however, time (or rather, my children) was not permitting. The next auspicious day is 9th July, this Sunday. I would need to give my two kids as much exercise as possible during the day and hopefully they would be asleep by 8 pm.

A new pair of knitted socks done, totally enabled by Grumperina who sent me the Greenwood Fibreworks sock yarn plus the pair of Inox aluminum dpns to knit this pair with as Kathy warned that this yarn doesn't like the bamboos that I normally use. And soft is not a good enough word to describe this pair of socks. They literally hug my feet when I put them on this morning. Thanks, Kathy!

Remember the crochet I was working on earlier? I've joined it to half yard of Martha Negley fabric from stash hoping to turn it into a dress for JY. The idée is not mine, it is from Marie Claire (in the magazine, the bodice is knitted though)! And I remember Erin did something like that too last year.

Le problème: The crochet is too loose around the bust area (click here for the uncrinkled photo) but JY is already having a bit of trouble getting into it. I've thought of ripping off some rounds and adding a slit as opening for buttons but as it is worked in the rounds, the change of direction of the crochet when worked flat would be very noticeable. So the shortest cut solution I thought of is presented in the photo above: thread a ribbon through the crochet stitches (so convenient!) to act as a drawstring, then attach two narrow grosgrain ribbons as straps. I'm thinking, one end of the strap would be sewn in while the other end would have a button which will be buttoned into the natural 'buttonhole' created by the gap between the crochet stitches for ease of putting it on. From experience, I know that crochet straps are very stretchy and will sag in no time hence the idea of using ribbons as straps. The amount of yarn I have left is rather limited, maybe about 10g of each colour.

My solution seems to me to be workable but my husband thinks it's not good enough. Hence I'm all ears to any advices that you may give, I'm sure 10 heads are better than 1 (mine)! If you think the dress is a lousy idea, please do say so, it's easy to rip it off and I'll maybe turn the crochet into a … bag?

Breathe

Nothing beats stocking stitch. Nothing beats soft, cotton-y, stocking stitch on the feet. Now I can breathe. So can my feet.

Okay, I'm lying. My feet can now breathe but I combusted (I stole Wendy's term. BTW, do go and take a look at her stunning latest creation). Long story short, the same 10 adults, 5 below-7 kids, 3 days in a row this past weekend, I am still trying to recover.

Meanwhile, enjoy this wonky flower pincushion for the Pincushion Challenge. Why is a circle SO difficult for me to sew ? Next time, I really should make one of Lyn's Stress-busters.

Time for something new

One project (the Nicole cushion) is now sitting in the sewing pile and another knit (the rainbow cardigan) suddenly flew on the needles. As I'm using a different gauge yarn for the cardi, it now needs some calculation for the sleeve and can't be knitted on the bus just yet.

What can I do but start a new bus project.

I'm using the lovely Greenwood Fibrerworks cotton sock yarn and Inox dpns that Grumperina sent me. This is the first time I'm knitting with elastic yarn and it feels kind of odd, the cool type of odd though. It is so springy I'm not sure how to tension the yarn I hold with my right hand (I'm a thrower and I wind my yarn around my pinky). Usually, I hold it quite taunt but by doing this with this yarn, it gets stretched out rather thin so I have to hold it gingerly. After a while, I grow accustomed to knitting with the yarn but I have to constantly remind myself to relax and not hold the working yarn too tightly.

The Greenwood yarn reminds me of Phildar Eponge that I knitted with last year which is not really elastic. That blue stripey cardigan has been listed there forever at my sidebar, I wonder if it will see daylight again, maybe in the month of blue in June?

Going back to the new sock. Ever since I know I'll be getting this special yarn, I haven't stopped thinking which pattern to knit with it. As I urgently needed a new bus project and don't want to swatch, I started the sock toe up with the figure-8 cast on. Started with 16 stitches (8 on each of the two needles), increased until there are enough stitches to fit around my foot which is 64 stitches. Conveniently, 64 is a multiple of 4 and 8, and I could actually experiment with stitch patterns in those multiples. However, right now, I'm really enjoying the stocking stitch, maybe I'll decide when I get to the leg.

Leaves

Here they are, the Embossed Leaves Socks. I still like them despite all their variegated-ness. The modifications I made are mentioned in this post. Going back to read the modifications that I made after I finished the second sock, I realized I forgot to cast on with Clover 3 like I did for the first one but it still fits.

All you read here most of the time is the nice and calm of the knits, what you don't see is the behind-the-scene craziness of my household especially on weekends. The exact opposite of what Maryann describes in her May 6 post. Screaming children with grandma joining in the fun and when mummy can't take it anymore, mummy screams too. A good thing I observe nowadays is that my two girls can play together for a longer time before they start to tear at each other's hair. Let's hope this positive trend will continue.

So it is no wonder my green project is a complete disaster. Anything that is not plain and mindless gets messed up here. I'm trying to see if I can come up with a solution or an alternative. I'll tell more about it in my next post. Thank you so much for your lovely compliments on Something Red which really help me going with my knits in times of such mishaps.

The sock saga continues

The weather did cool down on Saturday but I didn't finish my Something Red in time to wear it to the knit out with the most delightful knit gang but it is done now save for the weaving in the ends and the button. The second Embossed Leaves sock grew considerably over the long Labour Day weekend but once again, I forgot to take a photo of that.

However, I have stash enhancement of the sock kind to show you. This year is not called Two Thousand and Six Sox for nothing. A motherlode of hard-to-get-in-Hong-Kong sock yarn arrived at my doorstep from the marvelous Grumperina! , I'll show you.

Orange (for April) and green (for May), so Project Spectrum. The squiggly ones are the famed Greenwood Fiberworks cotton sock yarn that Grumperina sings praises of. I think they'll be most appropriate for Hong Kong climate. In fact, officially, the orangey one is no longer mine and it now sits in the stash of my colleague, Terry. And the smooth one is the renowned Socks that Rock! Now I understand why it is the favourite of so many knitters. I can't wait to start knitting with it. I have not one hank but two.

Here's a hank of almost solid in colour, Spinel, perfect for showcasing textured stitch work.

Wait, there's more. Lorna’s Laces sock yarn in Lilac, the colour is so soft and lovely and I just love the gentle variation in the dyes of the handpainted solids.

And with this sock bounty, my stash grew a net 2.5 skeins in April after lessening out those used in the month. Pretty tame you might say but my yarn cupboard is bursting at the seams.

Roar!

Nothing gets knitted here these days except socks. Mindless and portable, the perfect project for the hot and humid weather. What about you? What're the projects you've planned for hot days?

The pair of tiger socks are completed very much in advance as a Christmas present for my husband's 6-year old nephew. More socks to come, all the kids will be getting them for Christmas this year. I know, they all want toys but this auntie is only interested in knitting socks right now. Maybe, I'll sew some softies, if I figure out how to, that is.

Talking about tigers, I was going through Ji Yuan's school file this morning and read that the school will be visited by the author of Tang the Tiger Cub, a book published in support of the Save China's Tiger Foundation. Check it out for those interested.

The first Embossed Leaves Sock is done too. This pattern and yarn combination is growing on me. I like the variegated leaves more and more. And placed here next to the tiger socks for a comparison, you'll see that although I have the fatty calves, I don't have very big feet.

The variety of dpns for sock knitting here is sadly constrained to Clover, which comes in sets of 5s and another Japanese brand which comes in sets of 4s. There are occasionally some old stock of Inox spotted in some stores and those are just about all. Thanks to the convenience of online ordering, in a spurt of the moment, I googled and clicked on to a Scottish website that sells ebony and rosewood dpns at reasonable prices and eagerly made my order. The delivery is very prompt and look what I received. The site is not very informative (no picture of the product) and I thought I was ordering something artisan that originated from Scotland. The needles are actually Susanne's which are manufactured in Germany. The quality of the wood looks really good. However, I've mistakenly ordered the very short ones, thinking that they would be just right for socks. The lengths of the needles were given on the website, I just didn't think when I ordered. They turn out to be glove needles which I didn't even know existed. The bamboo ones in the photo on the right are the Clover that I'm currently using which are 15 cm long.

Maybe I should start thinking about knitting gloves too on top of socks? Hong Kong weather doesn't really require such woolen accessories. Socks, I can wear around the house which is not heated and to bed to keep my fee warm. However, will my husband start to question my sanity when I start to wear woolen gloves to bed too?

What's your idiosyncrasy?

I remembered that meme circulating a while back. I thought I'm a rather 'regular' person and has no idiosyncrasy but then I found one.

I'm a bit concerned with numerical auspiciousness in knitting. For me, even numbers are good (except 4 which sounds too much like death in Chinese), odd numbers, I'm not so keen. Remember my Fat Fat (88) Cardigan? BTW, 13 is not really an unauspicious number in Chinese culture.

This pair of 56-stitch socks in progress is another good example.

For example, how many rows to knit for the roll of the rolled-brim sock? 6 rows, 6 sounds good. How many rows of K1, P1 to stop the roll, 2 rows, 2 is just right, I like pairs, and 6+2=8 which is really lucky.

How long to knit the leg? No measuring device to determine on the bus, so I counted the number of rows, again 50 rows sounds just about right. When I got home and measured it, the leg (with a bit of pulling) is 18 cm, yet again another lucky number. And coincidentally, the number of both heel and foot stitches are 28 sts each, very, very fortunate. The number of rows from the gusset to just before toe shaping is 52 which doesn't sound very good, actually it quite rhymes with 'not easy' in Cantonese but the sock already has a lot of good numbers. So it should be fine.

Having most of its numbers right, the stars are aligned, I'm sure the sock is going to fit the recipient well.

And why haven't I thought of it? 64 stitches for the Embossed Leaves Sock are just so unauspicious. Thanks to the wonderful and useful comments when I last mentioned about these socks. I've incorporated a number of suggestions and it seems to be working. First off, I cast on 68 sts (very lucky number, hehe) using Clover 3 and the cable cast on instead of the specified cast on. I continued on Clover 3 for two rounds (I did make the twisted rib, it is a rather inelastic rib, I found out) and switched to Clover 2s for the remaining ribbing, and I made a total of 25 rounds. Here in the photo are two repeats of the leaf pattern. For the remaining 1.5 repeats, I intend to decrease 4 stitches back to 64 stitches (I'll keep my fingers crossed to ward off any unluckiness) and follow the pattern from thereon.

Now comes the next problem, is the leaf pattern obscured by the variegated yarn? I saw the beautiful completed socks of Brooke and Kerstin's lovely WIP and thought the Koigu I have might work too. However, this colourway seems darker and too variegated, don't you think?

Random Knit Weekend

I missed the 1st April Flash your Stash Day. I can't even recall what I did on Saturday, all I know is I didn't knit or craft anything. No, actually I did. At around 11 pm after the little one was finally tucked into bed (yes, she's a late sleeper) I didn't want to give up on my Saturday just yet and feeling the itch to start something new, dug up my ball of Koigu and the Winter 05 IK to start the Embossed Leaves Socks which I've been wanting to knit. Had to stifle my yawns, my body was tired but my mind wanted to go on. So I read through the how-to on K1, P1 cast-on. On the second or third try, the cast-on worked and I knitted on for a couple of rows. Then argh, I realized that I've been slipping the purls (like in the preparation rows) instead of purling it. So I tried to pick up those stitches. No good, then I dropped a stitch right down to the cast on row. 50 minutes gone and I decided to rip everything. And that's just the best decision that night, the 64-stitch sock is just too small for me. I've the Fat Calves. So back to square one.

One question: I'm prepared to increase one more 16-stitch repeat and make a 80-stitch sock but will one ball of Koigu be enough for one sock? I've only 2 balls and would like to just use what I have.

Feeling my need for a new project unsatisfied, I picked out something else on Sunday morning. How about some Tiger socks? And this is just a bit orangey although not quite what I have in mind for April Project Spectrum. The Opal yarn is kindly given to me by Joy and I'm going to knit a pair of stocking-stitch sock with rolled brim for JY's 6-year old boy cousin. It’s never too early for me to start preparing for Christmas and it's perfect for bus knitting.

I forgot. I did something else craft-related on Saturday morning. I did my self-portrait-in-the mirror-trick with my Something Red. See, a bit too bulky now to carry with me on the bus and has now become my stay-at-home-mindless knit. I have another category which is the stay-at-home-attention-needed knit, e.g. the Backyard Leaves that's recently done. I need to categorize my projects and put the little spare time I have to the best use.

March Stash Report and April Preview: I completely blew my yarn diet. However, all I can say is, the acquisitions are all GOOD, the BEST. The net addition in March is only 3 balls but watch out for April.

Jaywalkers are everywhere

You can find them getting ready to jump the lights at the sidewalks.

At Time Square (imagine this is the Hong Kong Time Square).

Starring at Broadway.

Yes, I have been playing with Flickr Toys again.

And I started Something Red! I've got to go up to Clover 10 (5.1 mm) to get gauge so I can no longer use the excuse of the Clover 9 being stuck on the still to-be-finished Backyard Leaves to stop myself from casting on. See something red outside the window? Those are the red flowers from that tree cotton tree from my backyard post.

Big Red Knit Plans

Knitting minds think alike. I'm kicking of the red month of Project Spectrum with my first Jaywalker sock using this Regia Crazy Colors in mostly reds. And without any collaboration whatsoever (we didn't even mention it in our e-mails to each other), Joy is planning likewise. So we would soon be having twin feet, what fun!

About the pattern, when Grumperina tells you to use 5 dpns to knit this pair of socks, listen to her. I don't know if someone has mentioned it before given that I'm relatively late to the Jaywalking party but this is what I experience. I initially used only 4 dpns which is what I normally do for socks but the stitch count on each needle changes every alternate row because of the increases and decreases. So I switched to 5 dpns as written and then the problem is solved because this way, there is exactly one pattern repeat on each needle and the number of stitches stay constant throughout.

Anyway, I'm setting a very lax deadline of finishing this pair socks by April because I'm craving for a Something Red by Knit and Tonic, Wendy. Ah, Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton, when are you going to arrive at my doorstep?

Then there are the pink fronts of JY's rainbow cardigan to knit. Oh and I plan to finish my stripey Picovoli too, which is in red, pinks and orange this month. And I definitely need to have the red and gold lai see, Easy Peasy Bag too.

I would be happy if I could reach half of my red goals. I guess by now, you should have known that setting realistic goals is not one of my strengths.

And we are going to say goodbye to the lovely bright pink azalea blooms. They get in the way of the laundry, so mil decided that we are not to keep them anymore and will return them to the building management tomorrow.

By the way, to round up my Stash Report for February, the net decrease to stash is 6 balls of yarn, which is not bad at my rate and I'm very happy about it. Let's hope I can keep up with this.

Rainbow Socks and a bit of everything else

I'm really close to finishing Jess, a couple of rows left for the collar, one more sleeve to set in and buttons to sew. Talking of which, thanks very much for your input on the which to use. I'm pretty much set on using the last ones like many of you have suggested. Anyway, I ran out of finishing steam with the kids taking turns to get sick.

I did finally finish the rainbow socks. Do not underestimate a simple double-rib sock using self-striping yarn. I thought it would be a mindless knit but I had my fair share of problems.

The pattern is roughly based on the Stashbuster Spiral Socks pattern. It took 1 ball of Regia Nation Colors for this pair of 52 stitch socks.

Cast on: The figure 8 gave me a bit of a headache although it is the second time I'm dealing with it, I find myself suddenly having 8 hands.

Toe: For the toe increases, instead of increasing every alternate row until the specified number of foot stitches, I increase every row until half the foot stitches, then every other row until the required number is reached. This is an exact reverse of the standard toe that you would knit leg down. I remember Jody discussed about this for her lacy socks in which she increased every row until 85% of the required number is reached.

Heel: The heel is a Sherman Heel. Despite this type of heel being a less-prone-to-holeyness short-row heel, I still had holes on one side of the first heel; the second one has less holes on both sides. I guess I still need lots of practice for that.

Cast off. On my first try, I did a sewn tubular K2, P2 cast off and JY's foot couldn't pass through. So I had to undo it (you can't rip a sewn cast off) stitch by stitch and instead applied the elastic cast off that I learned with the Flower Basket Shawl. Much better and more give. There are certainly other types of elastic cast off but this is what comes to mind and is worked like this: K2, *transfer these 2 stitches back to L needle, K2togtbl, K1, repeat from * to end.

Finally, the foot of the socks turned out too long for JY. Oh well, I can keep them for the next winter. Not enough sock drama for me? The next pair, I'm going to Jaywalk.

By the way, I started sewing my skirt for the Sew I Knit-along. Took me a good Saturday afternoon to figure what size I should be, trace the pattern, cut the fabric (good thing I cut the flowers right side up), sew the overcast (or do you call it the zig-zag) stitches, sew the darts, and attach the zipper. The sewing on of the zipper was surprisingly smooth. Then I had to stop, found myself heady and completely exhausted (funny, knitting doesn't do that to me), guess I was holding too much of my breath. Hence the sewing of the skirt part two will have to resume after I take a good break.

Last but not least, check out Little Sesame Knits, a new blog from Hong Kong. Maryann has a worthy casue to tell us about.

Knitting the Rainbow

It's still February but I'm all ready to start Project Spectrum. I love this idea as I've been wanting to diversify the colours that I work with. So I went through my stash spreadsheet and realized that I have yarn in every colour of the rainbow, and yarn for more than one project in each colour group too. Not a bad stash, this small stash of mine. I do seem to have a lot more blues than any other colours though and not so much reds or pinks anymore. Maybe I've exhausted my reds and pinks by knitting for my girls in those colours all the time last year. So what's a girl got to do but order some red yarn, heh. After this order, I should be stashbusting all the way, I hope. I even got all my projects planned out through August.

Over the course of the months, I'll also be knitting JY's rainbow cardigan from Phildar Pitchuon issue S/S05. I'm sure she's going to love this.

I'll be using this yarn, Sirdar Rio, which is a cotton acrylic blend, the same fibre content as Rowan ASC only that this is DK weight. Perfect for the summer months. I wonder if it knits up as nicely.

And here's the progress of my other rainbow knit, the rainbow socks are at their last leg. See the azaleas? They are growing not too badly, just that I need to buy a proper pot to replace the temporary white plastic one. So are you ready to knit/craft the rainbow?

Woof!

The Dog has arrived! Happy Chinese New Year to all of you! The big CNY rush became the mad CNY rush. Work was unrelenting last week and there were still the shopping and stuff to be done. As you can imagine, I finish neither the Scoopy nor the Easy Peasy Lai See Bag.

Here's Scoopy still to be seamed.

I got the buttons too.

And the Rainbow socks is up the leg. The foot turned out a bit longer but that's good as it may still fit the next winter. The pattern is based on the Stashbuster Spiral Socks which is worked with the Sherman Heel. This heel looks so much like the Ozyarn No Wrap Short-row heel (which has now disappeared from the Web) that I'm suspecting they are both actually the same thing. I'd need to take out both patterns to make a comparison when I have time.

My new toy

Stash wasn't the only thing we talked about last Saturday at our knitting gathering. I told the girls that I'm thinking of getting a digital scale and they thought I'm a bit nuts. The idea arose back in September when Purly Whites suggested that I get one of those cooking scales so that I don't have to keep guessing how much yarn I have left. After much deliberating (it is kind of costly and thing is I don't cook and it has no other purposes save for weighing yarn), I finally went to the department store during the week and got one. Gone are the days of having to guess when it is a half ball of yarn. Now I know exactly when the mid point is reached. Like when you're knitting two socks out of a huge skein of yarn and you wonder whether you should go on knitting or should stop right away and leave enough for the second sock. It appeals tremendously to the Libra in me. It feels great to know when things are in balance.  I'm in good company as Claudia has similar thoughts.

Like these two balls of yarn, well, they are not exactly equal. One is 27g and the other is 24g because in order to have a complete colour sequence, I had to go over by 2g but it feels great and soothing to me to know that one ball is slightly heavier than the other. Then it's also good to be able to start the two socks at exactly the same point in the colour sequence. You can call me silly.

I'm knitting toe-up socks for Ji Yuan as her lacey knee highs are a gone case. So sad that they didn't last any longer. She's in a rainbow phase right now (she has had her green phase, than pink phase) and I'm sure she'll love these colours that Joy chose. And they are my anti-black, I need more colours to prepare for the dark phase of knitting black socks for my husband. The all-black Lang Jawoll that I ordered has arrived. Anyway, Chinese New Year is approaching and it is definitely not auspicious to be working with black right now. There should definitely be more hues to welcome spring.