Tag Archives: felici

Oh, hi socks!

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Y’all. I realize this is kind of a dumb thing for me to say. After all, I literally wrote the book on it. But…

Socks are fun?!

Like, I don’t know what I’ve been doing. I just 100% forgot that I can knit socks. I’ve been so sweater-focused for so long, that I totally forgot that socks were even a thing. What’s with that? Is it mom-brain? Is it quarantine brain? Am I jus a ding-a-ling?

But anyway. Turns out that socks are fun. Even super vanilla ones like these. Who knew?

I’m really enjoying this project. It feels so satisfying to zip down a sock, especially with the self-striping yarn. I enjoyed the fiddly heel, and don’t even get me started about how the stripes lined up with kitchener-ing up the toe. So satisfying.

Now I’m itching to get the second one going! Can’t wait to see my new socks all finished.

Have you ever forgotten that you enjoy a certain project?

And Something Else Different

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I’ve *technically* finished my crochet sweater, but I just am not sure about it. Maybe the sleeves need to be shorter… or longer? Or maybe it’s just not the sweater for me. I don’t know. But either way, it’s in time out for a minute. I’ll show it to you later, don’t worry.

Anyway, I was looking for something else to work on. Something simple and brightly colored and something that is sure to be successful. I dug around and found, in the bottom of my WIP box, this just-started sock. It’s just a regular-degular sock in Felici from a couple years ago. I could make it in my sleep, which makes it easy to pick back up again.

It was about three inches long when I found it, and now I’m fully around the heel. It’s funny though, I truly don’t know when I started it. Last year? Maybe. Longer? Could be.

But, I suppose that’s the good thing about knitting, you can put it down and pick it up again months (or even years) later.

What’s the longest you’ve had a project in hibernation before you started working on it again?

So many stripes- so few ends

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Y’all. I couldn’t be more pleased with how my self-striping socks turned out. They’re totally cute, totally functional, and totally done, with only a couple weeks’ work and the bare minimum of ends!

You know how I feel about ends (anti), and how I feel about stripes (pro), so these self-striping socks are just about perfect for me- the best of both worlds. I love how the little addition of slipped stitches gave the socks just a smidge more character than regular-old vanilla socks, and I’m beyond happy with how evenly the stripes worked out.

For some reason, I never really trust self-striping yarn to give me evenly matched stripes for both feet. It’s probably some weird deep-seated trust issues or something, but I always assume that self-striping socks will turn out as fraternal twins at best. But, look at these guys! They’re just about perfect!

Such a satisfying little knit!

What’s your most recent satisfying project?

A Variation on a Theme

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling the need for a little bit of simple, soothing, sock knitting. Nothing fancy, nothing crazy, something just this side of total vanilla socks.

So, I went for a dive into my stash (because I’m still not comfortable going out to an actual yarn store, though I miss my LYS (and the outside world) dearly) and pulled out a couple skeins of the Felici yarn that I designed for Knit Picks last summer. I like the idea of self-striping yarn, but I always get bored just doing a stockinette sock, so I decided to do something just a little bit different.

I’m adding slipped stitches!

I’m knitting these bad boys up using my usual sock pattern/technique, but instead of going for 100% stockinette, whenever I get to a color change, I do a round of (K2, slp 1) around, starting wherever the color changes. I love how they’ve got just a smidge more character. And, they’re keeping me just enough on my toes that I’m not getting bored with them!

And, in case you’re worried, the slipped stitch rows are such a small percentage of the whole sock, they don’t change the fit on the sock (or at least I hope they won’t).

I bet you could use the same slip-stitch technique with regular stripes, too, but then you’d end up weaving in all those ends… and who wants that?

What have you been working on lately?

Itty Bitty, Teeny Weenie, Multi-Colored, Striped Pantinis

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I got my yarn last week! And by “my yarn” I mean my yarn! My colorways of Felici from Knit Picks (Dragonboat and Fiesta)! And they’re so cute! I’m so pleased with how they turned out. (Fair warning- my pictures do not do the yarn justice. Some day I will learn how to take a photo with color that’s true to real life. Today is not that day.)

I was particularly excited about the Fiesta colorway- It’s way more “It’s the 80’s, so let’s wear our geometric design windbreakers to the mall and show off our ponytails” than I had intended, but in a really good way. I just had to start knitting something with it.

Anyway, I threw aside all the projects I’ve been working on/I’m supposed to be working on and had to cast on something with my new yarn as soon as possible.

It’s self-striping sock yarn, so of course I started a pair of socks.

Ha!

You don’t know me at all.

No! I started making a pair of baby pants! Because why? Because the world needs a pair of 80’s-tastic striped baby pants!

I’m kind of winging the pattern (which will definitely not backfire on me) based on a pair of my kid’s pants, so we’ll see how they turn out. But, they look so cute so far! (Speaking of the kid, he saw me starting one of the cuffs and said “A tiny sweater!” He’s learning so fast.) It was a pain getting the leg stripes to match up, but not too bad. It’ll be worth the futzing when they’re done.

And, don’t worry- I’ve got enough yarn to make myself a pair of socks, too.

Are you getting any Felici? What’s your favorite pattern for self-striping yarn?

I MADE SOME YARN!

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I usually try to write something clever, or at least do a little funny intro to my posts, but the only thing I can say today is:

I MADE SOME YARN!

YOU CAN BUY IT!

IT’S SUPER PRETTY!

A few months ago (actually, quite a few months ago, because apparently it takes a while to manufacture yarn), I collaborated with KnitPicks to design a couple colorways of their eternal-favorite self-striping sock yarn, Felici, and my yarn has just become available!!

My skeins are the bottom two- the bright, multi-colored ones! They’re both inspired my my (sometimes unrequited) love of gardens and gardening. (They both had garden-y names when I designed them, but I guess the KP marketing folks decided to rename them… who knows?)

The first one, Dragonboat, is a mix of greens and bright red, yellow and orangey-pink, the colors of my favorite zinnias, which always remind me of a summer garden. Not my summer garden, since all my zinnias are kind of sad and stunted this year, but still.

My other skein, Fiesta, is inspired by my neighbor’s garden. She’s a much better gardener than I am, and her yard is always teeming with vibrant dahlias, powder-blue hydrangeas, vivid roses and golden sunflowers.

I can’t wait to see the yarn in person- my skeins are en route as we speak! I think I’m going to start with a classic pair of stockinette socks, but then who knows where I’ll go… hats for everyone? A stripey sweater for the kid? The sky’s the limit!

Grab your skeins here!