The last two of my favorite self-stripers hold their own with creative color combos that always look good to me.

Sknitches

Photo courtesy of flickr user Wannabeknittin’

Take sknitches for example. Yes, I am clearly a fan of blue and brown, but don’t these socks look so good? Sknitches also has a wide array of non-striping yarn in beautiful colorways, so if you order from her site, you can get a great mix of sock yarns in fabulous colors.

Ravelry Yarn page

Knitterly things

Photo by Flickr user Wooly interlude

Some of the first handmade self-striping yarn that I ever heard about was Vesper sock yarn. As a spinner, the shop’s curator also has a beautiful assortment of hand-dyed roving. It can still be kind of a challenge to snag the sock yarn, but it seems like there are shop updates many Wednesdays, and the Ravelry Group can a be a useful guide to shop stalking.

Ravelry Yarn page

Speaking of ravelry groups…. a long time ago I started a Ravelry group for those that love stripes – Better with stripes. Pop on over and say ‘Hi’ if self-striping yarn is your sort of thing.

My Central Park Hoodie has a completed back, and I am working on one of the front pieces.

I accepted the fact that I am not a sock designer and ripped out this single sock that I designed myself.

It was too small for even me, and I somehow made the pattern almost impossible to size (and sock patterns without a S, M, and L size are one of my pet peeves). So the lovely STR will be reincarnated as a better fitting sock.

And I compeleted exactly half of a project by casting off one lonely sock.

Regia Canadian color #4733; 3 x 1 rib – my own pattern

And I do think the casting off was the best part. Why didn’t anyone tell me about the picot bind off featured in knitty? As a toe-up knitter, I was pretty happy to find these instructions and make a cute little bind off on these socks.

There. I have been knitting. Don’t forget about my contest – Midnight Pacific time tonight (sat june 10) is the cut off, so please tell me about your favorite knitting/crafting tool/material. I love reading all of the comments!

I have had this nagging in the bag of my head telling me that I want a drum carder. I have looked into it a few times but never bought one. I want one primarily for blending merino wools with fine fibers. It should be able to handle the slightly coarser wools that I like – Romney and wensleydale for instance. And it should be able to handle the occasional fleece. Ultimately I would like to be able to make blends with soy silk and camel down and other finer fibers. I think the one that might be right for me is a Strauch Petite. I like the petite-ness (studio apartment) and the fine cloth. The only complaints that I was that when processing fleeces on the fine cloth, the second cuts didn’t get separated but that seems preferable to not being able to card fine fibers. And I shouldn’t forget to mention that the comparatively low price is a major factor.

Here’s where you come in… What do you think? Do you know anything about carders or own one that you have an opinion about? Leave me a comment and let me know! You will be eligible to win a prize from me if you do.

Don’t worry if you don’t know anything about drum carders, you can still be eligible to win a prize. Just leave me a comment and tell me about your favorite knitting/ crafting material or tool. For instance, you might tell me that you you couldn’t survive without medium-weight Socks that Rock. Or that your Bernina is your most dear possession. Or that you cannot resist alpaca yarn. I want to hear about what you like!

The contest will be open until next Saturday, June 9th when the winner will be selected at random. I’ll send you some sock yarn, and a sock knitter’s needle case. If a non-knitter ends up as the winner, and doesn’t want the prize we’ll figure something out.

Want to see the prizes?

The red yarn was dyed by me, but never made it into my etsy shop. I dubbed it “unphotographable red” and had to screw with the photo in photoshop to get it to look kinda normal. The colors go from a red-orange to a medium red and it si a superwash wool nylon blend. The Needle case was hand sewn by me in the style of the ones in my shop. Perfect for circulars, DPN’s and crochet hooks. I threw in a little crochet hook that I got at Daiso – you’ll get that too. Finally I added two skeins of Brown Sheep Handpainted yarn. Nice traditional wooly sock yarn. So get commenting!

I designed the cases to hold skinny crochet hooks (for provisional cast-ons and dropped stitches), double pointed needles and circular needles. You can even toss in a tape measure, stitch markers and a little ball of scrap yarn for casting on. They are small enough that you can take the whole case with you and your portable sock project.

See the notes in this photo for details on where to keep everything…

I listed a few in my shop, along with some newly dyed merino rovings.

Okay, I am of to scrounge for contest prizes… I am trying to think up something good….

Enter Moirae, whose blog is one of my frequent stops. She had a blogiversary contest that I won. And my prize… Sweet Georgia sock yarn

Oh man. It is good looking. I chose the colorway “rusted” and I think it really suits me. And for such an act of kindness on Moirae’s part, I am sure she has just amassed an awesome amount of good knitting karma. I try not to enoy the yarn too much since it might be all I ever get… kinda reminds me of the ribwich…

In other news, the Maker Faire and Bazaar Bizarre are happening this weekend (recent craftzine post contains all the links you might need), and I am very excited to attend. I immensely enjoyed the event last year, and by all accounts it should be bigger and better this year. i hope to start the day with a visit to Nine Rubies to enjoy being in the presence of yarn (and podcasters). I think that I might have some local Bay Area readers out there… I will be at the maker faire probably all day Saturday. I will also be packing a load of moustache and i *heart* yarn pins. So if you see me, say hi and i will shower you with buttons. I might be forcing them on strangers anyway. Have to spread the love of ‘stache.

Remember how I was bummed that I didn’t get a table at the Bazaar? Now I know that it was so that I could have a relaxing week this week (not caught crafting under a deadline). And the money I had set aside for registering at the Bazaar… Now it is spending money! Expect a full crafty shopping report.

A beer cozy that I am calling “the Handyman special.” When you know a handy guy that welds a new piece for your ball-winder, you need to repay him somehow. I attempted a dramatic picture in front of sunset behind the golden gate bridge, but it didn’t work at all. This cozy is knit out of dishcloth cotton from our big order and was done on straight needles.

I have two other practically completed projects, but they won’t be around much longer. The first is a prototype for a sock pattern I am working on.

i like the pattern a lot. It has a little bit of yarn-over laciness, a little bit of ribbing, and a little bit of twistiness. unfortunately it is a little too small and needs to be reworked. This time I think I will use a normal weight sock yarn instead of the medium-weight socks that rock (in the color dreidel in case you were wondering). I think my standard 3×1 sock will be perfect for this str, just like the last. So this particular sock will be ripped out momentarily.

The second project destined for destruction: a square for larissa’s square-along using some of my solar dyed sock yarn. This is what it would look like if I was actually blocking it:

It’s an age old tale of knitting woe… I didn’t check my gauge and it is an inch too big. So it is getting ripped out and done again on smaller needles. Don’t know if I will be able to get it done by the deadline, though. Too much other stuff going on.

Edit: Larissa is accepting all squares, so I can send mine after all and I don’t need to rip it out and redo it. hooray!

I made a rather timid attempt at a second pair of socks using my leftover yarn…

A baby sock! So far i only have 1.5 baby socks finished, so maybe I will get the rest done at knitting tonight. to reiterate some of my knitting philosophy for any new readers

Babies: Not so much.
Knitting for Babies: awesome.

Baby projects are tiny and always cute (well, almost always) and usually pretty quick. I am a huge fan of baby socks because it lets you try out different sock knitting techniques (toes, heels, bind-offs) rather quickly since they are pretty small. I am writing up this pattern as I go and hopefully people will be able to use it to try out knitting a toe-up sock. stay tuned.

Here are a couple of socktober highlights that I want to link to for future reference.

• Stretchy Bind-off by Grumperina – This is fantastic for toe-up socks. It is by far the best thing i have found so far. and easy to memorize. B- you have to try it.
• Short row heels with wrapped stitches – Buried in this tutorial is the reason why the left and right side sides of short row heels with wrapped stitches look different. and how to fix it. when i understand, you’ll see it in action here
• Picot Edging for toe-up socks – Completely tested and verified with math, the best way to put a picot edging on a pair of toe up socks.

i am off to spend the last hours of Socktober in a bar with my knitting friends and others. I might get that second baby sock done, but probably I will just ruin it while knitting under the influence. Happy Halloween!

Here we have Chuck’s socks (pattern here, story of the lunch box here). Briefly mentioned when I first started them, and then faded into the background. They are designed for a foot that is 8.5 inches around, and mine is only about 7 inches, so i sized down the needles and went at it. The result…. they didn’t fit. too small. Everyone that i told that they fit and were just a little small…. I lied. I mean, I could after about 3 minutes of wiggling and wrestling, force them onto my feet. but that isn’t really fitting. And if you know me you know i hate ripping things out, so i have been in a state of denial.
So I am ripping them out. Liberated by socktober!

Incidentally, if you are currently making forward progress on Chuck’s socks, you should join the knit-along.

I am in a bit of a state of denial about something else… stay tuned…. there will be prizes involved.

I am also comfortable enough to declare that I have figured out how to do short-row heels for toe up socks…. EXACTLY the SAME way as for top down socks. Took me long enough to realize they were symmetric so it doesn’t matter what type of sock you use them on.

I also joined the Fall Cable Knit along. i did this because I thought the next thing I would start on would be the ‘Central Park Hoodie’ from the Fall Knitscene magazine.

I know that I swore off hoods after the rogue… they take too much yarn, they make it seem like you should be done with the sweater, but you’re not… But i can’t resist. And now I can;t say for sure that his will be my next sweater project… Problem is, Knitpicks knows I am a sucker. If you have ever bought something from them, they send you almost weekly emails advertising a new pattern or yarn. Being a sucker, I open them. And this time I love the pattern and the yarn. go take a look at Emma. Inticing because it has it all: steeking, knitting in the round ( no purling!), suggested yarn in colors i like, and an awesomely huge collar.

Whoa! I just had an awesome idea – I think this yarn would also work for the central park hoodie!! Ahhhh, a green cabled sweater, and a brownish jacket… wouldn’t that be nice.

Finally, shamelessly, since I have yarn lust and no yarn budget I have to pimp my etsy shop

I’ll give you free First class shipping (priority if you order more than one) on yarn if you comment when you purchase that you read about the yarn on my blog. WAIT for an invoice from me before submitting payment!

You might notice that the sock is sitting atop some delicious looking brown yarn. I made it! I think it is my best spinning yet. The roving was merino wool – mohair blend and the color was
called Kona. I got it at Carolina Homespun when i got my wheel. I have a selection of pretty rovings (I think 4 oz each) and i just don’t know what to make out of that much yarn. I spin too thick for socks, and i don’t want to make a hat…. maybe i
will put them all together in a scarf.

And finally, the top-down raglan is progressing nicely. I have already start to think seriously about something cool to do for the ribbing.