The Iron Knitter report

I am occasionally vain about how fast I knit, so when someone posted a sock race competition, I felt it was mine to lose. I was irritated when they added things like puzzles and large gaps of time between rounds, but I still played along. This involved six pairs, and I finished in the top 15 of 98.

Pair #1 This pair was given to Gwynivar for her belated Kissmoose gift. Other than knitting straight off the cone of undyed yarn so there was more twist than there ought to be, this pair had no problems.

Pair #2 I heavily modified the pattern on the cuff so that it would fit, or else it would have had horrible cankles. The pattern also called for cuff down, which I dislike knitting. The one on the right was later completely frogged and reknit toe up for better fit. These I kept for me.

Pair #3 This pair is a little tight on the cuff. If I knew someone with skinny legs, I'd consider gifting them. The pattern called for cuff down, but I knit them toe up and no one noticed.

Pair #4 I love the color break in this yarn, but again, the pattern wasn't a gauge that will fit me. All of the patterns we were told over and over again were on Size 2 needles, although this one's instructions said size 0 needles. I think they would have fit me had I used 0s. While knitting this one, Max had health issues and required extensive dental surgery. This pair and a pair I knit between rounds went to his furry paw mother who helped us cope with that. You can see this sock is almost falling off my ankle.

Pair #5 I liked this pattern - it was toe up. The thing I did not like was that it wasn't centered on my foot, and I will re-write it for better centering if I ever knit this again, or only put the lacy bits on the ankle. This yarn, Dream in Color Smooshy is very warm, so even though it's lacey, it's still a Very Warm Sock.

Pair #6 Finished at last. This is a complicated sock, and I didn't understand its construction when I worked it cuff down. So sock #2 was toe up, and required some fudging/re-writes to work. I liked it better with my fudges, even though it would have gotten me tossed had I been the first finisher.

These were all knit between January 20, 2010, and April 14, 2010. I also knit half a scarf and at least one other pair of socks not in the competition.

So I finished a shawl for me

This is out of Mini Mocchi, and I made up the pattern as I went along. I wanted to cast on the long way and decrease until done, because the other shawl I made did it the other way, and I was so discouraged about facing a long row, I didn't want to finish it. I think if you start with the long rows, you get the enthusiasm of starting a new project to help you over the "OMG these long rows are going to kill me!" feelings. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that if you don't decrease *every* row, you'll end up with a giant square. And the edges could have been deeper to prevent curling, but a good block still takes care of that.

Mini Mocchi is what Noro ought to be - texturally this is lovely yarn, nice and soft, and the colors are delicious with the long gradual shifts. This is sold as a one ply sock yarn, but anyone nuts enough to use a one ply sock yarn deserves to wear out their socks very quickly. I'd use this for baby sweaters, hats, scarves, and of course, shawls.

Pattern:
I don't remember how many I cast on, but it had to be divisible by 7 (number of stitchmarkers available) plus 4. I think it was 22 stitches between stitchmarkers. Garter stitch four rows. Then k2, yo, ssk, k to marker, yo, ssk, k to marker, yo, ssk, k to marker, k2tog, yo, k3tog, yo, skk, k to marker, k2tog, yo, k to marker, k2tog, yo, k to marker, k2tog, yo, k2. Purl back. The k3tog in the middle will very very slowly eat the stitches.

Here be Dragon

This is the dragon I made one of my brother's kids for Kissmoose, based off the Alan Dart pattern, out of malabrigo, only because it was The Perfect Dragon Color.


Ariana decided she really liked him a lot. She played with him long enough to get into trouble with tossing him around the house.

But Aidan, for whom the gift was really intended, was more obsessed with showing off his butt.

Fishy, fishy, fishy fish...

Max looks good in this fish hat. So will my nephew Danny.

Ethereal Fichu

This is the Ethereal Fichu by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer, done out of Buffalo Gold lace weight. This is also the first shawl I've done, so I'm rather proud of it. Completed in three weeks, instead of the hoped for two weeks, because I was silly and did other things on the weekends. It'll go in the mail in the morning.

Now to get back to socks... oh happy dance!

Dear Da

You may remember buying me a pair of socks some assembly required last year for Kissmoose. I'm happy to report that the assembly is finished and I'm happily wearing them today.

Here they are all spun up:


And here they are on my feet:



They're very comfortable and very beautiful, and thank you so much for my socks!

(For the curious, yes those are Franquemont Fiber Luxury Sock batts in Dandelion)

Me with Cake the Elephant

I've been busy

In October, I made a push to actually knit some of my handspun, in particular some of the Abby batts I spun during this year's Tour de Fleece.



The above turned into the below as one example.



There was also a shrug but there will be no photos of that until I finish it up entirely.

I also wanted to make pumpkins, and here are my pumpkins, with a lovely twining vine on the foot, and poofy slouchy pumpkins on the ankle. Pattern for Pumpkins will come soon. These were done with Burnt Orange Holiday Yarns.

After Rhinebeck

I worked Rhinebeck in the Booth for Holiday Yarns and the TsockTsarina. I came home full of the urge to cast on, design, and spin - all at once. I met wonderful people, taught a few tricks, learned a few tricks, and discovered no matter how late I stayed up, I still woke up around 6 AM.

I feel like I have to open a new blog and myself get onto a schedule for blogging, and write about knitting. When I was younger, I used to Need to write like I need to breathe, and now, I'm more tuned into knitting and the fiber world, so I feel I need to write about that.